Aware of rights & options, domestic help quick to dump toxic employers

While Swiss courts recently came down on the alleged abuse of domestic staff by a prominent Indian family, employers in India continue to exploit this unorganised 'invisibilised', yet indispensable, workforce that is outside the regulatory net. But there is change in the air: solidarity is growing among domestic workers, bolstered by a changing demand-supply balance, an awareness of basic rights, and numerous placement agencies that help workers to swiftly 'move on' after dumping a toxic employer.
Recently, a high profile star actor in Mumbai hired a domestic help and demanded that she be up all hours after late shoots, endlessly hand-wash her delicate clothes and serve her guests with no respite. She bargained over the helper's salary. The helper left. So did the next one. Both found better jobs through a placement agency.
While the Swiss court recently came down hard on the alleged abuse of domestic staff by a prominent Indian family, employers in India continue to exploit this unorganised, invisibilized, yet indispensable, workforce that falls outside the regulatory net. The good news? There is growing solidarity among domestic workers, bolstered by a changing demand-supply balance, an awareness of basic rights, and numerous placement agencies who enable the cook or nanny to swiftly 'move on' after dumping a toxic employer.

A country embedded in casual feudalism-where residential towers have separate elevators for staff and the helper's 'room' might be a sliver of corridor-is slowly, a bit grudgingly, recognising dignity of labour. Today, salary and leave days aside, the smart domestic worker is far less willing to put up with the chronically suspicious memsaab who accuses them of eating the last avocado in the fridge or a sir who barks orders. As Reshma Patil, a feisty cook in south Mumbai, says, "No one wants to deal with 'khit khit'. Once, twice, people take it, but by the third strike they will bounce and look elsewhere." A company driver recently quit and told his placement bureau his employer had not given him a box of Diwali sweets like other drivers, saying, "Izzat (honour) is all we have, so if even that is not honoured, then there is nothing."
In the bigger gated communities, if a parsimonious madam hesitates to dish out the Rs 2,000 per hour per month (the average rate for part-timers in some parts of Mumbai), there's always five other flats that will welcome her with open arms. Besides, the help will ensure the news spreads virally among the neighbourhood bai gang. The madam will likely be informally black-listed and be left walking the dog-or toddler.
"There is definitely a change in attitude since the time we started ten years ago," says Meenakshi Gupta Jain, founder of Helper4U, an online placement portal offering pan-India what they describe as the ABCDE-Ayah, Bai, Cook, Driver, Elder Care-of staff, who come with criminal background checks. "We are finding the younger generation of employers are more fair, more accommodating. Now, many employers themselves encourage their help to take Sundays off mirroring their offices," she adds. The portal connects potential employers and employees. Helper4U is starting a community platform for women workers registered with them to interact- from discussing employer woes to their kids' education.
Referring to the Switzerland case, Bookmybai.com founder Anupam Sinhal says, "Someone had to bell the cat. It will set a great precedent. I hope someday something like this comes to India as well so that people reduce their exploitative tendencies-financially, emotionally, physically." Bookmybai has a database of 10 lakh workers and services cities across India and also works with international clients. He says there is growing understanding of basic rights, like their safety or being given stale food. He cites the case of a worker who quit because the employer tried to stop her from taking her fortnightly paid leave they had agreed upon. "She simply quit, without having a fallback option."
The average salary for a live-in domestic worker in the big cities is between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 while in Tier 2 cities it is Rs 15,000 to 25,000, because it is harder to find people, according to some bureau records. But India still has its own version of apartheid when it comes to this sector, and stories of abuse and exploitation continue. Despite international agencies like ILO pushing for it, govt soft-pedals on enforcing minimum wage and benefits for domestic workers-deemed to number between 5 crore and 8 crore, say experts. "We are demanding a national legislation since mere policy is not binding," says Chritin Mary of the National Domestic Workers Movement. This must cover fair wage, social protection, skill development training, protection of migrants and grievance legislation since they fall out of the net of the labour court. "But, yes, at the grassroots level domestic workers are getting aware of their rights," says Mary. "There is also growing awareness among employers who value domestic workers' contribution to the economy. They know if the domestic worker does not go to the employer's home to work, then the employer cannot go to work."