[Reader-list] Independent Fellow Monthly Posting

[quraishy]

It is the posting of Rohini Patkar , I am posting it on behave of her


he 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 10^th , 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.