We have always had special relationships with our domestic workers. My brother and I used to frequent their house, they eat at ours or get us food when they make something special and even years after they leave occasionally call us never missing birthdays. As I grew older I saw that, apparently this was not the case everywhere. I still remember the first time my friend’s mom chastised me for drinking from the ‘maid’s glass.’ I am not taking a moral high-ground about how great our family is because it obviously comes from the fact we see ourselves not too different from our didi’s. My grandmother used to work as one too, a lot of of my relatives continue to do similar ‘unskilled’ work and maybe that is one of the reasons why we see everyone as equals and ourselves-just luckier.

It is way later I acknowledged the bubble I lived in. As a kid I saw the workers sitting alone in kitchen (floor) and eating while the family ate at the same time outside (on the dining table). In law school I learnt that our laws do not classify over 3 million (mostly) women as ‘workers’ legally or recognized the dignity in their labour, practically. During the pandemic I saw the hypocritical face of people who complained about their workload in lieu of WFH or how unfair salary cuts were but paid NOTHING to their domestic workers for months.

I refuse to believe this is anything but present day untouchability. Casteism today manifests in different ways especially in urban circles. Savarnas continue to assert how this is a class problem and deliberately be ignorant about the fact that for Indians class also has a caste. When I say the c-word they’ll immediately be defensive and cancel me in their elite echo-chambers because the average liberals cannot fathom that they are active participants and continue to benefit from the current system. This is the reason we do not have the concept of ‘dignity in labour.’
The fact that most of them are women bring forth patriarchy-induced problems as we continue to see domestic work not as ‘work’ but ‘chores’

So what should we, as employers do (apart from staying informed)?

It is unfortunate that I mention something as obvious as – giving your workers the basic respect and dignity they deserve. And NO, you doing the same is not a charitable act requiring a pat on your back but extremely basic & ordinary- what you should have been doing in the first pace. They do not require a UC savior who feels noble after teaching their kids for a couple of days while simultaneously paying less then the mandated minimum wages. On paper woke-ness can only get us somewhere without tangible, well-meaning actions.
I would like to share a story of a little experiment that saw a little success in our neighbourhood. We worked on forming an informal group, a Union. All of the domestic workers in my area live near each other (not coincidently), and knew each other. They set their own salary, discussed their employees, negotiated for each other and even stood up against their much richer, much more privileged sahebs and madams. An year later elected a leader on popular vote to oversee their concerns. During the entirety of this initiative there was zero support- not from their homes and definitely not from their employers. I personally heard 50K+/month earning women complaining about the Union led initiatives that resulted in increased wages, minimum paid leaves, etc. even when this ‘increase’ still skirts along the minimum wages line and barely dents their pockets.

The homework for anyone reading this is to at least observe how things function at your own home and trust me you’ll find some error in the common routine that you have followed till now. There is no use of your privilege if you cannot make use of the same for someone else.