Maids find doors, livelihood shut on them

Residents fear domestic helpers might be to carriers of COVID-19

After a gap of over two months, A. Hilda Mary, a domestic helper who works at S.S. Colony, resumed work in the first week of June. However, with the implementation of complete lockdown from June 24, Ms. Mary was again asked to stop coming to work.

With no source of income and mounting debts, Ms. Mary says she would rather take up any job even at the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection than seeing her children starving. “I have to pay house rent and the moneylenders are knocking on my door every day demanding repayment of loan. The government must help us,” she says.

With the rising COVID-19 positive cases in the city, many residents have asked their domestic help to stop coming to work as they fear that the maids might be carriers of COVID-19. “While some employers are empathetic and pay them the salary, most of them have not paid the salary to their domestic helpers. Also, many families have already asked their domestic help to stop coming to work, making them jobless,” says P. Clarammal, State Coordinator, Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers’ Union.

Many gated communities and apartments in the city have asked the home owners to avoid employing domestic workers during the pandemic.

B. Mariammal, another domestic worker, says the maids are ready to follow safety measures such as wearing face masks, washing hands frequently and avoiding any form of physical contact. “Working at homes is more riskier for us as if we get infected with COVID-19, we would not even have sufficient resources to have home treatment for COVID-19. But we still want to work as we are the sole breadwinners of the family,” she says.

“We understand if people who have lost their own source of income cannot pay for domestic help. But those who can afford can at least pay half the amount of salary,” says Ms. Clariammal.

Though the government had announced a financial assistance of ₹2,000 for domestic workers, many have not received them yet, she adds.

It is important for the government to provide additional financial assistance to the domestic workers to help them during this crisis, says S. Selvagomathy, Managing Trustee of Justice Shivaraj V. Patil Foundation.

A senior official from the Labour department says through mediation they are planning to help the employers understand the plight of domestic workers and make them pay at least a part of their salary. “Once lockdown restrictions are relaxed, we will work on this,” he adds.