Domestic Help - Can’t do with or without!
Domestic servants are a real problem in Mumbai. You can’t do without them and it is certainly becoming harder to stay with them. I live in a very large house with very high ceilings; since the ceilings are not false, there is a lot of dust in our house and living on the fourth floor makes it even more breezy and windy. We really can’t do without servants; but at the rate at which they steal and break our stuff, I sometimes feel that maybe we should do without them. Nowhere else in the world will you find domestic help. It is only in India that labour is so cheap, but I feel the system of slavery is bursting at its seams and is going to give way anytime now.
Servants are really more of a bane than a boon. In developed countries like the US, you have to do all your domestic chores on your own. With the advancement of technology this is really possible, no matter how big your house. But we insist on keeping domestic helps who refuse to change and be proper employees. When we go out to work, we never expect more than our salaries from our employers, but from our employees, we always get a raw deal. I wonder what makes them so destructive and so demanding in the first place? They break our expensive gadgets; use all our most personal belongings; steal money, food, groceries, jewelry and even use our cars and toilets. This is really not done. In fact, some of my servants even have the gall to expect some personal favours from us, despite the free food and annual bonuses that we provide them yearly. I don’t understand them really. They feel too humiliated to be doing lower jobs, but have no other way out, so they vent their frustrations on our belongings. My servant of late has been acting really silly, especially since his wife left for the village and hasn’t returned in two months. He has the guts to talk in a high tone with my granny and generally has no respect for the work he does. What does he expect? That we’ll make him part of the family and look after his kids’ education et al?
I think the government should take a harsh step and stop these people from poisoning the lives of their providers. Isn’t it a fact that it was domestic helps who repeatedly killed their landlords and owners in flats in the suburbs of Mumbai? I think the government should take over and stop this mindless exploitation as no one benefits from this trade.
Neha Singh
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