[Reader-list] monthly posting

[rohini patkar]

        sarai monthly posting

The network used for the getting work by the women:

The third party interviews are meant to give an insight into the channels 
that are used by the migrant domestic workers for finding work for 
themselves. These are those networks of people that women have access to (or 
are approached by) who help them find work, housing, etc, in Delhi; or bring 
them from their native villages to towns and cities.

Delight Consultancy Services, Ashram (Below the Srinivaspuri Flyover)

On March 10th, I visited a domestic worker’s employment agency in Ashram 
called Delight Consultancy Services. I tried to explore the details about 
the process used in recruiting women. They told that they do not recommend 
candidates for employment unless equipped with their complete “bio –data”, 
they do not send minors for employment anywhere and women are not sent to 
work for single men. Many of the girls come from Calcutta, as the woman, 
Meenu who is a partner in the agency is herself from a village in Calcutta. 
She said that the girls who have already been employed through them bring 
new girls from their native villages to be employed. They match the profile 
of a girl with that of the employer and then send them to work. The 
credentials of the employer are checked thoroughly and they are completely 
responsible for the girl’s well being. In the event of any dissatisfaction, 
both the employer and the employee can contact the agency. The salary is 
negotiated by the agency to the satisfaction of both parties and the agency 
gets a commission depending on the post for which they supply candidates. 
The proprietors said that they haven’t received any complaints at all in the 
past one and a half years that they have been running their enterprise.

Note: The office was a small cabin- like structure, situated in the basement 
of a building. It had a partition. When I announced my arrival, immediately 
one of the several young men who were sitting in a long bench in the front 
part of the cabin, asked me to sit and wait and offered water. He said that 
the sir and madam are having lunch, so I will have to wait. Along with the 
young men, there was one young girl who seemed a potential maid to me. It is 
a registered agency, so they seemed to follow certain rules and guidelines. 
But despite asking for some documents or papers of sorts, they told us that 
they do not keep any of the documents themselves. It seemed unlikely 
considering the amount of paperwork they told us was involved. At the same 
time, there were piles of papers lying everywhere which I could not get my 
hands on in the first visit. It is essential to do an interview with one of 
the women who has been employed by this agency and if possible, with the 
employer, to verify the facts etc. Clearly, they realized the potential 
dangers faced by these women, and even if they had experiences of women 
having faced problems, it was quite unlikely that they will tell it to me.

Next week, I visited the Kotla Chowk where labour is recruited everyday at a 
daily wage. There we met Rajaram, a small time thekedar who informed us that 
the ‘going rate’ for men varied between Rs. 100 to 150 a day depending on 
the nature of work and for women it was Rs. 90 per day. He also told us that 
women hardly did construction labour or sat at chowks anymore they mainly 
did domestic labour. He told us he sometimes obtained work for the women in 
Seva Nagar Basti.

Miss Jaya’s employment agency:

I visited an employment agency, run by Miss. Jaya, in Lajpat Nagar (I got 
the address through the Hindustan Times newspaper). The agency supplies not 
only domestic labour but also tutors, clerks for offices etc. The agency is 
registered and follows an extremely contractual system of recruiting and 
placing labour. Women are mostly demanded for nursing, childcare, maid work 
and housekeeping. Women below 18 are not given employment through this 
agency and a complete identification and bio data of the candidate is 
procured before she is recommended for a post. The agent did not seem to 
know much about where they came from, said mostly Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam 
and MP. The network is mainly a word of mouth one; women who have been 
employed through the agency, recommend it to other women. Suitability, 
salary, nature of work are all settled by means of an agreement signed by 
both parties (the employers and the employee). The employer is charged a 
commission by the agency for supplying them with labour. Field staff is 
employed to regularly check that both parties are satisfied. When asked if 
any of the candidates had ever faced any problems he said no.  We were 
unable to glean any details about the women themselves, their support 
networks and their experience of doing domestic labour. Clearly the agency 
did not concern itself with anything about the women other than the terms of 
the contract.

Note: It was a one- room office and Miss Jaya herself was on leave, off to 
America, they said. The two people who were manning the office were 
extremely busy, dealing with numerous phone calls, dealing with some women 
who had come there for work, etc. When I called them for appointment, they 
readily agreed for the visit.

On Aug 5, Maya went again to the chowk at Kotla Mandi, where labour waits 
everyday for work. There were about 80-100 men lining either side of the 
road and one woman who were awaiting a contractor to give them work for the 
day. I spoke to the woman, but could not get much information as we were 
immediately surrounded by the men! She said she came everyday and worked for 
a daily wage of Rs.100. She lives near Kotla and was originally from Jhansi. 
She has been in Delhi for ten years. When I asked her who helped her get 
housing and construction work, she replied no one, she had to do it all by 
herself. Clearly she didn’t get an opportunity to talk with an overwhelming 
number of men volunteering information all the time. Apparently only 2 or 3 
women came everyday and the others had left. I sat there for a while till a 
Maruti car drove up. Some labourers picked up their implements and rushed to 
the car. Hurried negotiations were carried out after which the car drove 
away and the labourers got ready to go. Others dispersed.

I went to a construction site at Moolchand. We were unable to talk to the 
workers that time, but I managed to speak to a woman worker late at night. 
Her name was Anjali and she lives in a basti in Lajpat Nagar (which we 
subsequently visited). She, her husband and the entire team of workers at 
the site were temporary migrants who had come to Delhi to earn money when 
the agricultural season was lean. They were from Khatiyaari district in 
Bihar. Every year, their thekedar, a man from their village, brings a group 
of them to Delhi to supply labour for construction. Here they settle down 
for about six months, usually in rented accommodation till they return to 
their villages. they do not find work on their own, only through their 
thekedar, who takes them to the work site everyday, and brings them back and 
ensures that they get their payment. Women are required either when its time 
to construct the ceiling, or to break stones.  They get Rs. 100 for a day’s 
work, about Rs. 1500 a month is spent on food provisions and other 
houselhold expenses. When asked if she faced problems during work, any kind 
of problems, the answer was predictable. There were no problems at work, it 
had to be done. Moreover, she came with her husband and brother in law, so 
she was never alone. She had one small child with her at work and a daughter 
who she had left in the village. The entire group comes together from 
Khatiyaari zila and will go back together.

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