Paroma Ray 
Today, June 16, is International Domestic Workers’ Day.
In popular media, domestic workers are often used to add humour to a story. Their clothing, their speech patterns – sometimes limited to sassy one liners – or excuses they employ to avoid work and ‘trick’ employers are perennial favourites.
Sometimes domestic workers are used as human canvases on whom the true character of protagonists and antagonists are painted. The respectable middle aged man’s mask falls off behind closed doors as he sexually exploits his worker. The middle class woman, so overwhelmed at the workplace where she needs to remain agreeable that she takes out her anger on the domestic worker later, gets a redemption arc by acknowledging her mistake and more often than not rescuing the domestic worker from a bad financial situation or domestic abuse.
The workers’ bodies, humanity, sense of dignity and even quirks are fair game if the plot needs to move. Whether it is in the depiction of violence or the element of humour, the targeted audience for the consumption and engagement with the show never seems to be the domestic workers themselves. A general perception exists that the working class in general and women in the working class in particular are low brow consumers of media, fit to consume only mindless and slapstick material. This perception ignores the structural reasons that hinder the broadening of the cultural horizons of those in the working class and also makes free use of the existing cultures within working class populations.
Fifteen members from the Sangrami Gharelu Kamgar Union carved out an hour of their time from their domestic and workplace responsibilities to discuss this topic. This exercise was not to criticise any particular actor or show but to shift the gaze from the intentions and agendas of the employers to that of the workers themselves.
Indispensability and simultaneous disregard
The above clip is from Chi Chi Dirty, a short film contrasting the lives of two working mothers, one who actively discriminates against her domestic workers and thus is unable to retain the services of any worker for more than a few months and the other who tries to treat her employee with dignity and equality but can’t escape the mindset that all domestic workers are potential thieves who will exploit employers’ ‘generosity’.
This is not out of the ordinary, say domestic workers who participated in this discussion. While all of the participants were apprehensive of attaching their names to quotes, some did not object to being recognised by first name. They are Wahida, Sufaida, Gazala, Anita, Sajida, Poonam, Sandeepa, and Basmati. The participants are all between 25 and 37 years old. One woman is 50.
“In one family, while working, if I accidentally touched my hair or skin I would have to wash my hands before returning to work,” says a participant.
In the same house another worker was asked to take off all jewellery before working, something she did not agree to do.
Also read: On International Domestic Workers Day, We Must Recognise the Discrimination Many Still Face
“If they can eat the food we make and live in the spaces we clean with our own hands then they can very well deal with the fact that if we do eat in their homes we will eat with dignity, in proper plates,” said another participant.
“They show us in such poor light but if we don’t go to work for one day then their blood pressure will rise trying to take care of everything,” laughs another.
Another domestic worker cracks a joke. “In their own houses they do not wash a single spoon and leave everything for us to do but then they complain that they are getting lazy and run to the gym”.
Struggles around sexual exploitation and social factors that increase vulnerability
The above is from the trailer of Nayan Chapar Dinratri, a Bengali film depicting the violence faced by workers at the workplace and in their own homes, alongside the peculiarities of the commute of domestic workers who travel to Kolkata for work by suburban trains every dawn and return to their villages late in the evening.
A participant said that while commuting long distances is not a problem faced in Delhi, “life must be doubly hard for the workers back in Kolkata” if women are forced to travel such long distances by local train.
“Living in the city is so expensive that one’s income can’t support all the expenses either…Missing one train would mean losing a day’s earning or not being able to get back to their homes. That’s a scary thought,” says another participant.
A domestic worker shares a humiliating experience. “When one goes to people’s homes to work, often the men in the house roam around the house wearing their underwear. They think it is their house so they can do whatever, but their home is our workplace and it makes us extremely uncomfortable. They wouldn’t do this if guests came over to their homes so why do they do it when we go over to work?” she asks.
“When it comes to cases of sexual harassment, every worker remains silent. If alarm is raised at the workplace then no one would believe us,” says another worker.
“We would lose our jobs as well as our reputation as good workers and good women if we made complaints,” says another participant.
Another holds up a mirror to a wicked reality. “We must also note that just because some man behaves well with us doesn’t mean that he has never harassed other women.”
Unionisation and bargaining for economic rights
The above are various extracts from episodes of Shitty Ideas Trendings’ ‘Maid in Heaven’. One clip focuses on the issues of Diwali bonuses (SGU members themselves had campaigned for a financial Diwali bonus last year. Instead of bonus money employers would often hand workers a packet of mithai for a lot of extra work).
The other clip is around the ‘maid committee elections’ where the competition was between the incumbent called Vandana and first-time entrant Baby. Vandana was portrayed as a tyrant who mercilessly imposes wage rates and applies other tactics to silence her opponents. The election however turned into an ego battle between the employers of the two candidates.
“We are also demanding that fair work rates be decided and fixed across residential societies and that we have a strong say in this process,” says a domestic worker.
“Unity amongst workers is important to ensure that no one works below the settled rates but we also understand that sometimes people work at low rates out of desperation. We like that Vandana enforces the rate rule but we are uncomfortable with how she goes about it as she is taking away someone’s livelihood. We need conversations among ourselves,” says another worker.
“There is conflict between two bastis where residents of one basti accuse the other basti’s residents of working at lower rates. We need to figure out a way to unite different sections of domestic workers,” is another opinion.
“One employer told me that there is no point in unionising, and that it is a waste of time. However, he fired a domestic worker who refused to leave the union. If the union is so useless then why are they so threatened by us joining unions?” asks a worker.
Relationships and power
In the above scene from Jalsa, Vidya Balan is a working mother with a special needs child. While the domestic worker is distracted by some personal issues, the child goes to the kitchen and breaks some bottles and also turns the stove on. Vidya Balan’s character enters the room and chastises the worker for being negligent and rudely asks her to leave (with pay) the service for the time being.
“Whenever anything goes wrong in the house, we are always the first suspect,” says a participant.
“In one house I had to cook while simultaneously looking after a toddler. His father was just sitting there. When I was busy frying something up, the kid got hurt. His father abused me in language that I can’t repeat. Firstly, they expect me to cook and prevent a playing child from getting injured at the same time and secondly when I do make mistakes, they think they can use whatever language that comes to the tip of their tongue at me,” says another participant.
A domestic worker says that whenever her employer misplaces an item, she thinks she has stolen it. Another says that many take out their daily frustrations on them through verbal abuses.
“At least Vidya Balan’s gives her her wages. We mostly have to fight for wages no matter how rich the employer is. One inexperienced worker was recently taken advantage of when her employer made her work for eight days and gave her only Rs 400,” shares a participant.
Most others speak of how employers are loathe to settle dues when they fire them or place them on leave.
The portrayal of female domestic workers has shifted from silent background characters used as props to display the wealth of the employer, to hapless victims of poverty and violence, to sassy and modern but lazy workers. What remains, however, is that these portrayals are tailor made to fit the assumptions, sensibilities and emotional needs of upper and middle class viewers. The reality of life is far more complex and cannot be truly captured in film unless the film is conscious of social issues and the roles people play in perpetuating them.
Paroma Ray is a PhD researcher on the gig economy, at Delhi University. She is also an activist working for the Sangrami Gharelu Kamgar Union that has been working towards unionising domestic workers in Bengal, Bengaluru and Delhi. It has been operational in Delhi for the past two years.