No help at hand

A hand-to-mouth existence for domestic workers was reduced to a hand stretched out for alms and all without even as much as a warning, writes Gajanan Khergamker

Those with ‘stable’ jobs were hit drastically by the coronavirus threat and were forced to stay at home in the face of the lockdown extended in most states, since March 25. Savings swiftly dwindled with each passing day. And, following the inordinate lockdown period, that once-seemingly-secure job wasn’t secure any longer. Now, that is the case with the organised sector: Those who had made ‘investments’ of sorts to bide them through such times were hit, and how. And then there were the rural poor — offered doles by the state, ration at home, cash and social security measures, food by the civil society and health care by the initiated. But hit worse than the two, were the urban poor who, owing to their symbiotic relationship with the urban middle-class, have been left twiddling its thumbs with its new-found penury. A hand-to-mouth existence was reduced, across India, to a hand stretched out for alms and all without even as much as a warning.

An abrupt end

Sixty-five year old Julie Rebello, who worked as a maid taking care of a 78-year-old stroke patient in Mumbai and earned Rs 450 per day, was abruptly asked to stop work by the patient’s Australia-based daughter who felt that the risk of contracting the coronavirus through a maid was high. “One fine day, just a week into the lockdown, the patient’s daughter told me to leave the work fearing the risk,” said
Julie, who found herself jobless. “After all, my work involved a lot of ‘handling’, she felt, little realising that the chances of the unstable patient falling and suffering a fracture for a senior citizen are higher when left alone,” says Julie. Paying a monthly rent of Rs 8,000 to her landlady had become an arduous task. “All that talk of the government warning landlords not to demand rent during this period was just that, as no landlord is taking the warning seriously. And, if I do complain, my landlord will ask me to leave. There are thousands waiting to take a place on rent in Mumbai,” says Julie, who had to pawn her gold earrings to a friend to pay the rent. That amount, says Julie, managed to pull her through the first two months of the lockdown.

The state government’s announcement of the extension sent hopes dashing for Julie whose plight is symbolic of the domestic worker segment across most states. The future is uncertain and bleak. For Julie, at 65, it’s only worse. Age too isn’t on her side. Worse still, she doesn’t even have the liberty to worry about contracting the virus. The situation has been even worse for domestic workers working in multiple homes for a living.

Phased out

Domestic help is essential for most home-makers juggling with working outdoors and within homes. The ‘domestic worker’ has now been phased out rather unceremoniously from across India’s cooperative housing societies in the face of the threat of coronavirus and the need to maintain social distancing, leaving them jobless and on the verge of penury.

“All that talk of paying one’s servant a salary despite not working in these times sounds good to the ears but is impractical in nature,” says Hyderabad-based artist R Vasudev. “While a lot of state governments have been making sweeping statements suggesting landlords defer collection of rents for three months and threatening those who dismiss anyone from work, it simply cannot work in the real world,” he says. “I, for one, simply couldn’t afford to pay my domestic worker for not working,” he adds.

Vasudev, on his part, armed with YouTube videos and a lot of time on hand, learned to cook during the lockdown and has managed to figure out ways to keep his home clean. “It took a little bit of management and ingenuity to figure ways to stay clean rather than have to clean up every day,” says Vasudev who has decided to do away with his maid for good.

There are some real issues that affect the real world out there. While the situation looks dismal for one looking at an imminent unemployment, the onus of providing employment does not rest on the employer solely. The state, which makes the assurances, will need to provide the solution. Simply threatening employers left with little option but to ask employees to leave, will not help here. While doling out sensitivity is heart-warming, practically, someone will have to cough up the money needed. In the times of Covid-19, while the wheels of domestic life slow down suddenly, it affects us all. And, of all, the weakest, read domestic worker, is hit the worst.