Over the past few years we have seen a new class of Indians who pride themselves in being educated, liberal, progressive and modern. While such attributes were the preserve of the elite till recent years, the so called middle class too now attempts to emulate the same, feeling confident about being modern with increasing education, exposure and disposable income. Coming together as the Educated Class, they take pride in standing for modern, liberal values of equality, freedom and justice. Hailing primarily from urban areas, they have a strong sense of being champions of these modern values and exude a jingoistic rejection of petty discrimination based on caste, class or religion and any accompanying social injustices. It is in this context that one of the greatest hypocrisies of this class becomes all the more shameful. I am referring specifically to the social discrimination domestic helpers have to face everyday across thousands of colonies in this country.
The use of domestic help has to a large extent been institutionalized by the British who helped glorify the same by attaching their imperial/elite aura to the idea. Over the years, using domestic help has become a way of life for most urban households depending on their ability to afford such services. Though fewer households have full time domestic helpers, most engage them in one form or another. The economic and labour conditions in this country too have enabled such a market to thrive. While being completely unregulated and prone to exploitation, many see such a contract as supporting employment with concomitant availability of domestic services. However, such a contract has resulted in the creation of a separate class of people who are looked at as being lower in social stature due to their engagement with supposedly menial work. It is open knowledge that depending on the circumstance and parties involved, they are subjected to exploitation, humiliation and in some cases even subjugation. They are often referred to as servants (an imperial legacy) with most people actually perceiving and treating them as that.
The deliberate ill-treatment of domestic helpers is none the less a fact that is known and spoken about. In fact, the educated class to a large extent is vocal about its disapproval of any gross ill-treatment of such workers keeping well in line with their larger pretentions about being the torch bearers of modern liberalism in this country. What no one acknowledges however, is the conscious segregation that is practiced against the workers and their families across most colonies where they work.
Many workers live with their families in the same colonies where they work in “servants quarters” or sometimes just outside the colony in slums. Living in the colonies, it is understandable that the workers’ families would have the same needs of health, recreation and movement as the families of the affluent employers. However, restrictions on the movement and actions of workers’ families are often enforced in such colonies. Workers’ children are not allowed to play in the same parks as the employers’. None of the sports facilities are open for use to the workers’ children even with the option of paying for the same. Workers and their families usually have different entry-exit points than the affluent residents and are required to carry their identity cards at all times and prove their identity at any time. They are required to get “permission” to bring in relatives from outside with most colonies not allowing them to stay over-night or, more often, not allowing them to enter at all.
The gross discrimination practiced against the workers within the houses is worse. It would be unfathomable to have a worker eating out of the same cutlery that the employers use and most have different glasses (usually the unused steel kind) for drinking water. They are forbidden from sitting on any of the furniture in the house with the possibility of them eating at the same table as the employers being considered sacrilegious. Allowing the workers to use the same bathroom is considered unimaginable with the reasoning that they are usually unclean and unhygienic in their manners. What is worse is that if a help were to “violate” any of these unwritten norms, they would be reprimanded for “taking the liberty to equate themselves on the same level (socio-economic I presume)” as the employer. Based on the reasoning that their “position” is lower than the employer’s, they would be accused of taking undue liberty and over-stepping their limits.
Treating people in this manner is strongly at odds with even the weakest understanding of equality and fairness. What is being perpetuated by the educated class is a revolting act of discrimination behind the well constructed farce of standing for equality and justice. What is worrisome is that such a practice is considered the norm both amongst the employers and the workers, with the matter considered completely out of the purview of any discussions pertaining to the workers’ rights and equality. Further, the educated class has managed to develop a pervasive notion of equality in which the inconvenient issue of treating domestic help with due dignity and respect has been considered irrelevant. An acute critique of this hypocrisy needs to begin if we are to duly salvage the idea of equality as is being practiced in this country. Delay to do so will not only erode the moral fabric of our people but will precipitate the disgusting charade being put up by the holier than thou educated class.
Domestic work lies well entrenched in the realm of the "private", immune from the political struggles of the "public" and what your piece does is to make us uncomfortable with the dichotomy we so conveniently take refuge behind. Whats worse is that the discriminatory practices you've described have become part of norms of civility which we choose to believe both parties have mutually 'consented' to. No legislation can change these practices unless we choose to make the private political.
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