The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : No help at hand for domestic helps at work

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Sunday, Sep 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

No help at hand for domestic helps at work

Vidya Venkat

— Photo : N. Sridharan

TOILING HARD: A domestic help at a house in Thiruvanmiyur.

CHENNAI: Tara is off to work to a posh apartment in Thiruvanmiyur by 6 a.m. She dusts the house, mops the floor and washes utensils. She repeats this routine in two other apartments and returns home by 7.30 a.m., where again she dusts her house, mops the floor and washes utensils. She cooks for her daughters and husband, sends them off to school and work, and after a quick bath, eats the first meal of the day at 11 a.m.

Trapped thus in a cycle of domestic drudgery for 30 years now, she says: “I wonder sometimes if I will ever be freed from this…” Squatting on the doorstep of her tiny house in Periyar Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Tara says the only difference she finds between working in somebody else’s house and her own is that for one you get paid, for the other you don’t.

Tara juggles an evening snack shop and a flower business along with domestic work. Ask her why and she says, “The pay from domestic work is not enough to run a household.” She earns Rs.1,500 from working in three houses. Bargaining for a higher pay would only mean losing the job to someone else willing to work for a lower pay.

Now domestic workers are in demand for cooking and babysitting at homes where women for work and the pay is better. “But these jobs can only be done by those who have less commitment in their homes,” says Tara.

Due to physical exertion, domestic workers are vulnerable to fatigue and back pain. Untimely eating habits also lead to ulcer. Most of them say they resort to self-medication. “Forget taking time off to see a doctor, many of our employers do not allow us to take a day off, if we fall ill,” says Vedammal, another worker.

Besides poor health, many domestic workers have to put up with abusive husbands and nagging usurers (from whom they borrow money). These problems lead to irregular attendance and they end up losing their jobs, Vedammal adds.

Being assertive can also jeopardise their jobs. Last year, Ilamathi, a domestic worker in Adyar, was cleaning the floor with a mop when a child in the house started crying. The house owner, suspecting her to have hurt the child with the mop, hit her on the head with the mop. When she protested, the owner dismissed her from work. Since Ilamathi was part of a union, she along with her other friends, protested before their house and ensured that she got her dues at least.

Vedammal says employers are now wary of women who are known to form unions. Also, in some households, workers have to put up with discriminatory practices such as entering and leaving “through the back door.”

Murugammal says she stopped working at a house where the owners only offered diluted tea and stale food to eat. But there are homes where domestic workers are treated well. Most of them say they receive gifts and extra pay during festivals.

However, for all the work they do, are domestic workers considered “working women”?

It is perhaps the first time Tara faced such a question and after some thought, she says “No.”

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