A 12 minute poignant documentary from Bombay’s Xavier Institute of Communications sent to me by Roy Pacheco. It captures the moments when a decision is taken by the householder to replace the part time domestic worker as she is too old to continue work.
Here is some context to that reality. In Bombay there is a practice from my time in the city that continues till today. In the average middle class urban home, living space is generally less than 750 sq feet in a high rise building. Even so, the lady of the house does not do the hard work involved in the upkeep of the apartment or flat, either because she is gainfully employed or because there is no space for the modern gadgets that make for independent living, or that she is too lazy and rich to bother. It’s just the Bombay system and few think there’s anything wrong with it. So the system prevailing involves a poor female domestic worker living in some slums or hutments nearby coming to do the daytime chores. Laundry (by hand), floor swabbing on bended knees, grinding the spices or masala and cooking the day’s food. If there are infants or toddlers, she bathes them too. She does this type of work in at least 3 to 4 households daily. Working for one family does not cut it for her minimum income. The woman usually comes from a very poor home where her husband is usually an alcoholic and either doesn’t work or spends his income on his moonshine and a mistress. If the domestic doesn’t come at the usual time at each household because of an overrun at the previous place of work, she gets a mouthful of invective if the employer is a demanding woman. She is entitled to no sick or other leave, no vacation pay, no retirement contribution or anything else besides the occasional trivial gifts during feast days or food leftovers that serve as tips. I am told there is a lot of realization during these Covid times among employers of the value of these women now that they cannot work and have taken off to their villages for the duration. Hope this leads to better treatment on their return. https://youtu.be/dAHyXkMr3eU Roland. Toronto.
