"She'd cooked breakfast and lunch for her two children and for her husband, who works as a taxi driver. Her daughter had an event at college for which she had to wear a sari. She needed her mother's help to get dressed. It took longer than they'd both expected. Meenakshi knew she was running late, so she skipped breakfast and rushed to work."
""I'm not usually sensitive, but I blinked back tears that morning," she says. "I've worked for this particular family for eight years and have been a domestic worker for 18 years. I know that toiling away in rich peoples' homes is about tolerating thousands of pinpricks in my heart such as these," she says. "We don't get even the most basic respect.""
"Last year, around Diwali time, Meenakshi asked the family to consider paying her an annual bonus of 1,000 rupees (the equivalent of about $11) in addition to her monthly salary of 3,000 rupees ($33). "They fired me," she says, bewildered. The couple, who both work in India's IT industry, told her she should be content with the sari they gift her every Diwali and not ask for more."
Meenakshi, a 37-year-old domestic worker in Chennai, manages early-morning care for her family alongside long-term employment in affluent households. She faces verbal abuse and emotional humiliation from employers for minor lapses, and describes enduring constant small indignities. Her pay is minimal—3,000 rupees per month—and requests for a modest Diwali bonus led to her temporary dismissal before being rehired. Employers often justify gifts instead of cash compensation and seek replacements at the same salary. Fair-pay demands and legal scrutiny of domestic labor compensation are emerging as prominent issues in India.
Read at www.npr.org
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