There was a time when the Malkin dictated and the Maid obeyed. Times change, Now, the Bai dictates, and the Malkin pleads her to have mercy. I have had to change 3 bais in 3 months. A fat salary, no hassles (I do not have the time in the mornings to monitor her work you see)..Still they left me feeling helpless and frustrated. I am not tyrannical or anything you may think. They prefer living in poverty without food to getting up at 730 in the morning.
Let me compare the salary of a Bai and that of a well educated teacher. Their monthly salaries are Rs 1000 and Rs 5000 (yes, the teachers salaries are dismal).
The Bai first: They take atleast 6 holidays per month. Come late for 18 days. 3 days before the salary date and after, they are on time and do a decent job. So, am I paying them for just 6 days + 9 days (they do only half the work for 18) = 15 days. That is the full salary for half the work done. So, they get paid around a 800 Rs for 7.5 hrs (considering half an hrs work everyday). So they get Rs133.33/hr.
The Teacher: For 8 hrs of work everyday, for 6 days a week, they draw around Rs 5000 per month or even less. That is Rs 104.666/hr. That is after all the stress of teaching, commuting, understanding students, making them understand etc etc. Where are the human rights activists now?
If we all regular office goers are expected to be responsible and accountable to our employers, are not these maids, who expect only rights but no accountability?
Richa
that is kinda sad :)
ReplyDeletehowever..mine is fantastic...we pay 500 for her to come daily, clean the floors and the baths...on top of that she puts our clothes out to dry and sometimes washes the utensils that we have conveniently forgotten to clean..and all that with just 3 days of holidays in a month. and pagaar after the due date...i guess after reading ur article i can count myself lucky