No pride in being Maid in India

Informal surveys indicate 85 per cent of these workers found themselves unceremoniously thrown out of jobs or forced to accept pay cuts during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown

What is this love/hate relationship that middle class India has with domestic workers? When the lockdown was announced, people like us took to the social media to bemoan the fact that part-time helps could no longer ease their domestic load. However, informal surveys indicate that as many as 85 per cent of these workers — domestic helps, guards, drivers and attendants — found themselves unceremoniously thrown out of jobs or forced to accept pay cuts during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. Estimates suggest that over a million people are employed as domestic helps across the country, with women constituting over