India’s Bais: Why So Underpaid?

Have you ever realised that perhaps the entire workforce in India that contributes to the country’s economy manages to do so because of one person who keeps their house intact – the ubiquitous maid, also known as ‘kaamwali’ and ‘bai.’ This is especially true of cities where young couples leave their house early in the morning to work in corporates and return late in the evening. Then there are housewives, who too are entirely dependent on the kaamwali to share their household burden.

Saying that a family’s happiness quotient depends on this one outsider won’t be an understatement. Her presence can make you and her absence can break you. Then why do we cringe when it comes to paying them? They clean, sweep, wash, dust, cook and even take care of your babies besides doing the random errands in between. How about paying them for what they do?

No WhatsApp group discussion is complete without mention of the bai. Copying some such conversation that I am privy to would be a breach of privacy but I can recreate some of it here:

A: desperately looking for someone to do jhaadu pocha and bartan. btw what are the charges here for a 3BHK behenji?

B: As per the society rules formed 2 yrs back 1000 for utensils twice in a day and 2000 for safai. baki if you want dusting etc you have to pay extra

A: ye to bohot zyada hai!

C: what to do we have no choice…

D: are they are all spoilt…..some people pay them more because they seem to have extra money… phir ye hamse bhi moonh phad ke mangti hain

B: i think we houseowners should form a union and not pay them an extra penny

This is just a  part of a conversation. Now let’s look at the basics. You don’t even want to pay a person Rs 3000 per month for spending close to two hours in your house every day to spruce it up. Imagine it comes to just Rs 100 per day! And we are living in 2023! Your child perhaps spends double that amount on chips, colas and chocolates every day. We complain about our DA not being increased and not getting the increment we expected and when it comes to the housemaid, we expect her to be content with the small amount agreed upon two years back.

The reason I am delving into such details here is that I want to shake our collective conscience at our hypocrisy. We, who wax eloquent about human rights and exploitation on social platforms, infringe the same in our own homes. So here’s more, based on experience.

Let’s go about it logically. We employ a maid to do job A and B and pay her Rs 2000 for A and Rs 1000 for B. But what about those small errands like mataji calling ‘Beta thoda isko utha le, isko udhar kar de, ye zara bahar rekh de, darwaza khol de, bhaiya ko chai pakda de….’ Hello! all this is consuming time. Her clock is ticking. You’s ve not employed her for such errands. If your time is money, hers definitely is because she has to move to the next house.

And please don’t rant about giving her clothes and utensils and her not being obliged for the ‘kind act’. Get it straight, you gave them because you had outgrown their use and you wanted them out of the house. If you genuinely wanted to do something for her, you would have bought what she needed. In this case, you are piling her with stuff which she perhaps doesn’t need but will accept it nevertheless lest you think she is arrogant.

What the law says

Unfortunately, the Central Government has not enacted any separate law to protect the interest of domestic workers.

According to a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) report, in India, challenges in gauging the depth of domestic workers’ problems arise at the very start – when it comes to determining how many people are engaged in domestic work, for instance. While according to official statistics, there are 4.75 million domestic workers in India, three million of whom are women, the International Labour Organisation, along with others are firm that the real number is much more, ranging from a wide 20 to 80 million.

The main reason that the report identifies as contributing to the ineffectiveness of India’s “piecemeal approach” towards domestic work is that all relevant action is de-federalised, with no overarching and binding rules to govern the working conditions of domestic labourers. Leaving individual states to formulate their own protections and maintain their own databases – especially in a sector that sees migration and movement from state to state – ensures loopholes that are difficult to bridge.

In addition, the report notes that state protections “are neither consistent nor uniformly implemented, and in some cases, non-existent.”

Noting that a Draft Policy on Domestic Workers is awaiting Cabinet approval since 2017, the report notes that it is the need of the hour to make such policies legally binding instead of acting as a guideline, which even this Draft Policy is.

Should this happens, believe me, there will be an upheaval in India. Every household will become a battleground. Tired and exhausted employees will not be able to deliver and the country’s economy will suffer.

All because you didn’t respect your housemaid!