Before Covid-19, said one young woman from Chennai, her mother, Gandhimathi, worked as a domestic staffer in two houses. Now, Gandhimathi’s...
Before Covid-19, said one young woman from Chennai, her mother, Gandhimathi, worked as a domestic staffer in two houses. Now, Gandhimathi’s both employers have told her not to return to work as the pandemic is showing no sign of receding.
“With no income, we are struggling with basic expenses like food and rent,” her daughter said. “They also ask us to get vaccinated, but we have not been able to do that yet. We request immediate assistance of any kind to help us tide through these times.”
When lockdown in March 2020 prevented domestic workers like Gandhimathi from getting to work, their absence was deeply felt as their employers had to do household chores themselves.
Domestic workers were among the worst affected during India’s lockdowns, as they were asked by their employers to stay home, often with little to no wages for the months they did not work and only meagre government support. As the number of cases receded later in 2020, some of them got back their jobs – only to hit a roadblock again in 2021 as the second wave swept across the country.
By taking low-paid work such as cooking, cleaning, and caretaking, female domestic workers enable their employers to seek or sustain paid outside...
