MAID IN INDIA

We eat first, they later,
often out of food portioned out for them; we live in the front, they in the
back; we sit on chairs and they on the floor; we drink from glasses and
ceramic plates and they from ones made of steel set aside for them; we call
them by their names and they address us by titles: sir/ma?am,
sahib/memsahib..Every year, thousands of poor, illiterate, unskilled women
flock to Delhi from villages across the country to work as domestic help.
This is how Fullin from Athgama in rural Jharkhand, Lovely from a tiny
settlement in Malda, Golbanu bibi from Doparia, Mae from Kokrajhar and a
Santhali girl from Annabiri, in the heart of Maoist country?find themselves
in the nation?s most powerful city, working for its richest people. This is
how tycoons and refugees, politicians and orphans?India?s one per cent and
her 99 per cent?rub shoulders every day, under the same roof.In the not so
distant past, everyone?s place? whether maid, ayah or cook, sahib or
memsahib? was well understood. There were clear rules for negotiating (and
maintaining) the vast chasm between the two sides. Today, it?s a little
different. There are housekeepers who are part of the middle class who ensure
their children join white-collar India. There are teenage girls brought to
the city by ?aunts? and ?uncles? to serve as ?24-hour? help, who find
themselves virtually and sometimes literally, caged. There are employers who
wrestle with the guilt of spending more on an Italian meal in a fancy hotel
than on those who clean their homes? and other employers who insist ?these
people? are all thieves.With in-depth reporting in the villages from where
women make their way to upper-class homes in Delhi and Gurgaon, courtrooms
where the worst allegations of abuse get an airing and homes up and down the
class ladder, Maid in India is an illuminating and sobering account of the
complex and troubling relations between the help and those they serve.