It is revealing that the number of people described as domestic workers has been going up by leaps and bounds in successive census reports, especially post-liberalisation (“Private power, public apathy”, August 7). This shows that the middle classes now rely almost totally on the cheap labour provided by women from precarious economic backgrounds. Apart from economic exploitation, the inhumanity and insult meted out to domestic workers proves that we are yet to emerge as a nation. The state uses women as a socially unprotected labour force to run programmes such as the midday-meal scheme and ICDS-run Anganwadis. What we need more urgently is a state committed to the Constitution’s vision and promise of an egalitarian social order.
Firoz Ahmad,
New Delhi
