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How domestic help exodus exposes urban India's dependence
As Bengal gears up for elections, domestic helpers have made their way back, highlighting how essential they are to the fabric of middle-class India. The landscape of domestic work has evolved; part-time gigs are the new norm, giving these workers more control over their schedules and pay.
The return of lakhs of domestic helpers from all corners of India to Bengal to vote in the assembly elections has led to realisations of many kinds. The primary one, of course, is how much middle-class India upwards still depends on them, from cooking and cleaning to child minding and elder care, no matter what the mod-cons. Our lives have still not attained western levels of enforced independence, or else this election exodus would not have caused so much consternation.
Times have changed tremendously. Whereas once homes were geared to live-in help, today part-time is the norm. And it is a seller's market: whether good or bad at their work, they decide their remuneration and choose their workplaces. They are not beholden to the families who avail of their services, though some do attain a degree of closeness. It is still an informal market as there are no contracts or clear-cut benefits, but it is not unorganised: there are areas and circle rates.
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Salaries for most domestic helps are good by local standards, although they look paltry compared to western rates. In many, if not most cases, the remuneration allows them to give children decent educations and make homes comfortable, drunken spouses and dependent elders notwithstanding. That is presumably why so many people from Bengal, in particular, make their way to the metros to even do domestic work - their incomes are adequate even if the work is hard.
That it's a tough job is undeniable. My bones have been protesting vociferously about me traipsing up and down our 95-year-old three-storeyed home in Kolkata for the past few days, doing routine household chores all by myself after ages. Even if food is easily ordered online, the washing up cannot be outsourced in the absence of domestic help. And thanks to the weather and the prevalent pollution, certain chores cannot be left for just weekly attention unlike in the West.
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The issue of domestic help has always been a fraught one, with foreigners who come to India or desis born and brought up abroad quite unable to understand, much less accept, this persistent urban phenomenon. Why should someone else cook and clean when you are perfectly fit, is the argument. Only the very rich in the West have similar domestic arrangements so why should millions of middle-class Indians avail of the same convenience at a fraction of the price?
With 'family retainers' this perception gap was even wider. It was regarded as slave labour or feudal exploitation. Many retainers were hereditary and mostly earned a pittance, but they felt compensated by the personal ties to the families they 'served'. The stereotypical 'Ramu Kaka' of old Hindi movies epitomised it. There were resemblances to 'Downton Abbey' too, where Carson the butler regarded Lady Mary as a daughter as much as his employer's daughter.
But such retainers are few and far between now. Their children have expectedly moved up in the world: the grandson of one such stalwart of my inlaws' household for 50 years has set up an industry in Gujarat and came to visit us in his own Mercedes Benz. But even he retained the emotional link with the family of his grandfather's employer because it was more than just a professional relationship - it was one of shared experiences, and abiding mutual affection.
Such strong links are uncommon now because there is no time for shared experiences, just work execution. Relationships are driven by remuneration and time slots mostly. Who takes advantage of whom is a matter of perspective. But domestic helps remain crucial to daily middle-class life. Otherwise their departure for 'Vote Yatra' would not have been felt so acutely. And they wouldn't be welcomed back with such relief! I am waiting to do so too!
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Source: EconomicTimes
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