Exploitation,Harassment and Violence: Lived Experiences of Women Paid Domestic Workers in India

Abstract

Women paid domestic workers (PDWs) form an integral part of the informal labour population constituting two thirds of the total domestic workforce in contemporary India. The sector of domestic work is largely stigmatized and is often synonymous with low occupational prestige, servitude and being ‘dirty’ and menial. Thus, women PDWs are often exposed to unpleasant working conditions in their employers’ homes as well as social surroundings. Further, many of these women are also victims of domestic violence (DV) in their own homes. This study shares the lived experiences of work-employer relationships, hostile work conditions and DV through the lenses of women PDWs’ narratives. The article also chronicles the women’s hardships, suggesting the exploitative nature of domestic work and how it exposes women PDWs to additional adversities in the form of discrimination and harassment in employers’ homes and DV within their own domestic setting. It concludes by showing a pattern of survival among these women who endure countless challenges within both the workplace and home and employ coping strategies to navigate hostile domestic environments. The findings offer crucial insights into the limits and capacities of women PDWs’ struggles.

Introduction

There have been times when I felt vulnerable, but what could I have done? This is my home. I cannot go anywhere else. I have a family and children. Who will take care of them if I leave? It is not easy. It is never easy for us. I was the youngest among my siblings back in my natal home. I was the dearest and my parents pampered me the most since I was the youngest. I do not have any sisters, only three elder brothers who looked after me and protected me like their own daughter. I received a lot of care and love from my parents and elder brothers in my natal home. When I turned 16, I was married off to my husband. However, the decision was not forced upon me by my family members. I married my husband of my own will even though he belonged to a different caste. The initial few years after my marriage were peaceful, and I gave birth to our son by the time I turned 18. Situations took a sharp turn when my husband got involved with some of his friends (bad company) and took to drinking.

He would beat me for money after he lost his job. I felt vulnerable and unsafe (weeps). So, I soon stepped out and took the job of jhadoo, pocha aur bartan (cleaning homes and washing dishes). I work as a part-time paid domestic worker now.’—Rita (36) (Field Notes, March 2018)

Women paid domestic workers (PDWs) constitute one of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in India. They are subjected to deplorable working conditions in their job and their social and economic contributions to society go relatively unrecognized by the country’s public, laws and policies. Furthermore, they are prone to exploitation because of the nature of their occupation, which primarily entails individualized and personal relationships with employers, weak labour force unity and spread-out geographic arrangements between different private homes (Agarwala & Saha, 2018; Mattila, 2011; Neetha, 2003).

Historically, feminist scholars have argued that PDWs who are viewed as bonded labourers are subjected to the ‘persistence of the master/mistress servant roles’ (Anderson, 2000, p. 193) and fall victim to abuse and labour trafficking (Anderson, 2000; Pande, 2013). The arena of domestic work within India’s informal sector is typically dominated by women as they account for the vast majority of domestic workers (75%), ¹ whereas men are known to engage in hard labour jobs such as construction work, manufacturing, etc. Further, such jobs are known to run across generations within a family, especially in the case of domestic work, where daughters acquire it from their mothers and become the breadwinners of their household. As an occupation, paid domestic work has been systematically devalued and disregarded (Rai et al., 2019). It has been further known to be a particularly stigmatized occupation (Ray & Qayum, 2009). Domestic work has been subjected to low status owing to the pervasive structural relations of caste, class and gender that are embedded in the labour relationship (Palriwala & Neetha, 2010; Raghuram, 2001). Thus, despite the rapidly growing workforce of PDWs in India during recent years, domestic work continues to remain a grey area within Indian Labour Legislation and PDWs tend to be deprived of any protection under the labour laws (Gupta, 2022). Such irregular types of work are often understood in synchrony with vulnerable forms of occupation. In her extensive research on the DWs of Jaipur, Mattila (2011) observes how domestic work is a form of ‘vulnerable employment’ owing to the structural inequalities and discrimination around domestic labour relations embedded within Indian (or any other) society. Further, the plight of these women is not limited to adversities within their workplace, but it often extends to high-risk cases of domestic violence (DV) within their own homes.

Although there has been a wealth of research surrounding the deplorable working conditions of PDWs within the Indian context, much of it tends to be lopsided with the focus substantially limiting to work and employer relationships of PDWs (Agarwala & Saha, 2018; Gupta, 2022; Gurtoo, 2016; Naidu, 2016). Apart from disproportionate working hours, there is also a need to recognize that these PDWs have their individual homes where they return towards the day’s end. Many of these women are also subjected to abusive relationships of DV from their husbands and intimate partners. Thus, the challenges experienced by these women tend to be two-fold—the precarious work conditions that they are largely exposed to due to their nature of work and negotiating their role as a survivor of domestic abuse within their individual homes. In recounting the experiences of violence, my analysis also reveals a pattern of survival among these women who employ coping strategies to navigate hostile domestic environments.

My purpose in conducting this study was to explore the lived experiences of Indian women PDWs through individual interviews. The broad research questions included the following:

How do migrant Indian women view their own experiences of working as PDWs?

What are the challenges that they face within their homes and workplaces in terms of employer–work relationships, hostile work conditions and DV, and how do they respond to them?

Essentially, this article seeks to examine the plethora of challenges shrouding the lives of women PDWs which also dovetails with the individual resistance strategies employed as a response to their immediate situations. The article begins by laying out a discussion on the exploitative nature of domestic work and how it exposes women PDWs to additional adversities in the form of harassment in employer homes and DV within their own domestic setting. Thereafter, it describes the methodology making a case for the unique perspectives provided through interviews with respondents in the context of their home and workplace and on the various counter mechanisms they adopted. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the findings of the study.

The Exploitative Nature of Domestic Work

Women PDWs continue to be debarred from basic working provisions such as maximum work time, remuneration for overtime, and security in relation to night work (Albin & Mantouvalou, 2012; Mundlak & Shamir, 2011; Pavlou, 2016). Mundlak and Shamir (2014) discuss the lack of unity among the PDWs to organize themselves collectively in the traditional sense, such as through trade unions, rendering their attempts futile. Since their work as domestic help does not constructively fall within the bracket of labour employment, their rights to minimum standards of decent work are continually violated. Often, the sector of domestic work faces the issue of troubled employer–employee relationships which are characterized by repression, dependence and inequality.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women DWs are further exposed to additional challenges such as unfixed, and uncertain employment contracts, serving multiple employers, probability of disguised and ambiguous employment relationships, little to no access to social protection and benefits, and substantial legal and practical impediments to engaging with a trade union and bargaining collectively (ILO, 2011). In this context, ambiguous employer relationships are typically manifested through the kinning of DWs which is central to their exploitation (Amrith & Coe, 2022). An example of kinning occurs in the way women PDWs are addressed in employer households in developing nations. Kinship terminologies, such as ‘aunt’, ‘sister’ or ‘daughter’ are utilized to address the PDWs in order to impose familial relations on an outsider who is entering the private space of employers (Gurtoo, 2016). This may also expose the PDW to additional work without pay under the pretext of kinship loyalty (Anderson 2006; Raghuram & Momsen, 1993). Since the duties and responsibilities of a PDW comprise working within the private space of employers and developing a certain intimacy with their personal and familial activities, tensions between the employee and employer seem to occur extensively within this profession (Amrith & Coe, 2022; Gurtoo, 2016; Rollins, 1985).

The Plight of Women Domestic Workers in the Indian Context

Discrimination against PDWs, especially within Indian employers’ homes can assume various forms—a form of which is observed around the boundaries of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ ² as PDWs traditionally belong to lower caste. Dickey (2000) argued that class and caste status are crucial markers in defining the employer–employee relationship within the Indian context where servants are seen by employers to represent a lower class/caste status, characterized by a lack of hygiene, uncleanliness and disorder. Hierarchy and power differences gradually seep into the relationship in the way the PDWs are addressed in these households. Although Sengupta & Sen (2013) note that the caste association is weakening substantially with the rise of more heterogenous urban middle-class households, nevertheless, a recent study based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017—2018 (PLFS) shows that employment rates remain higher among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs) compared to upper-caste women. Further, there is a higher likelihood for upper-caste women to be engaging in regular employment, whereas casual and informal employment, characterized by insecurity, lack of hygiene and low income, are more common among SCs and STs (Datta et al., 2020).

Additionally, these PDWs are subjected to perpetual struggles of survival with respect to their personal domestic setting as well. My respondents noted several instances of domestic abuse suffered in their homes by their husbands or close relatives. Among the reasons mentioned, dowry and alcohol-incited violence assume common causes of DV at home, as reported by some of the women who expressed concerns about the ongoing harassment by their husbands following immoderate drinking. Evidently, Indian women are very prone to domestic abuse and considered to be a high-risk group for gender-based violence (Ritter et al., 2021). A recent study based on the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data reported a total of 61.7% of women were victims of intimate partner violence and suffered physical abuse within their homes (Chowdhury et al., 2022). Further, the systematic under-reporting of such incidents is widely prevalent and approximately 70% of the Indian states account for such under-reporting of domestic abuse. According to statistics, the states of Bihar, Karnataka and Manipur, which account for more than 40% of DV cases in India, tend to report lower rates of DV cases (less than 8%) on average as compared to other states (Seth, 2021).

DV in South Asia, reported as being the highest in the world (WHO, 2013), emerges from several contextual factors which are identified as existing gender inequalities, the widespread devaluation of women (Kabeer, 2005), dowry (Pandey et al., 2009; Srinivasan & Bedi, 2007), and unequal access to resources (Fisher & Naidoo, 2016). Further, cases of DV are generally most prevalent among women who are engaged in informal, casual, or part-time employment, and their incomes are approximately 60% lower compared to women who do not experience such violence (UN Women, 2016; Vyas, 2013). Thus, the case of women PDWs is important as it shows how their individual testimonies of struggle extend beyond their immediate unpleasant employer relationships and precarious work conditions to instances of domestic abuse within their homes.

On recounting their experiences, the participant transcripts reflected narratives of ‘majboori’ (helplessness) that compelled them to abide by circumstances against their will. However, the testimonies shared by my female research participants also point to individual coping strategies as a way of ‘individual self-help’ thereby avoiding ‘any direct, symbolic confrontation with authority’ (Scott, 1985, p. xvi). As Giddens (1982, p. 197) argued, ‘even the most seemingly “powerless” individuals are able to mobilize resources whereby they carve out “spaces of control”’. This study recognizes the implicit acts of resistance and renegotiations observed among the women PDWs which are individual, ruminative and unorganized as opposed to a workers’ movement. In the present research, although the women PDWs were passive absorbers of exploitation and DV within their work and domestic settings respectively, their individual responses to situations were tactful and distinctive. Thus, in a way, the paper examines how the perpetual exposure to challenges contributes to women’s determination and enables them to set goals for their personal development.

Methodology

Data Collection

Through qualitative fieldwork conducted in the capital city of India, Delhi, during the month of March–April 2018, 20 in-depth interviews among the women PDWs within the age group of 20–40 were conducted. For the partial fulfilment of the objectives of this research, participants primarily comprised part-time/live-out PDWs who worked for several households on a regular or hourly basis during the week, or even within a single day ³ . During the fieldwork, greater assistance was solicited from two major Delhi-based non-governmental organizations that are particularly committed to empowering women from weaker sections of society through various training sessions, advocacy skill development workshops and vocational courses. It was during one of those training sessions that I developed further connections with my respondents, with who I then conducted in-depth interviews over various sessions after obtaining their consent and following the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended ethical guidelines (WHO, 1999). The participants comprised a mixed group of women belonging to different ages (20–40 years) and caste groups working in different neighbourhoods of Delhi.

The participants were given the option to withdraw from the study if it made them uncomfortable at any given point in their interviews, with no further questions asked. I made notes and recorded the responses and reactions of my participants in my field diary each time. They were further revisited and elaborated after the fieldwork at the end of each day. Given the objectives of the research, which relied significantly on description and qualitative data, in-depth interviews and free-flowing conversations were utilized to conduct the research.

One of the significant aspects of interviewing is precisely the role of power dynamics that exist between the researcher and the participants. During the initial days of fieldwork, there remained a considerable challenge as the PDWs who I approached perceived me as a woman coming with a privileged, middle-class background with access to resources and amenities. Furthermore, my background as an educated woman made them believe that I might be some agent attempting to extract information about their lives and families. While there were some negative attitudes held towards me, there were other women who considered me a government official and who were willing to contribute to my research in the hope that their current circumstances would improve after the interviews. One of them even asked me in anticipation, ‘Will you give all our detailed conversations to the ministers whom you are working with? Could you please share our issues with them and request them to do something for us?’ Such situations were challenging to deal with as I had to make them understand that I was just an independent researcher and that I did not have links to any higher authority.

The broader project that I was exploring among my respondents centred around the notions of home and safe space. It was only when terms such as ‘majboor’ and ‘majboori’ were used time and again by my respondents that my focus shifted toward the vulnerable state of their existence relating to their experiences of insecure employment, abusive husbands and at times workplace mistreatment. The interviews were audiotaped following the women’s consent and were later transcribed, and emergent themes were flagged and coded during this early stage of analysis. The names and ages of the respondents referred to in this research are pseudonyms, and participants’ identities are kept strictly confidential to maintain the anonymity and privacy of the participants.

The Work–Employer Relationship: Women Domestic Workers’ Experiences within Employers’ Homes

This section presents the narratives of women PDWs underlining the dynamic relationships shared with their employers and how their lived experiences were shaped by a web of challenges. Since the women PDWs formed an integral part of both homes, that of the employers and their own homes, my research explores questions around their challenges and experiences while juggling both home and work together as well as the coping strategies employed to circumvent their unsettling lived experiences. Most women lived in small, rented homes in unauthorized colonies, or other informal settlements in Delhi and commuted to and from work daily. Their employers were predominantly apartment residents within mixed-income localities commonly known as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) colonies, which comprise residents belonging to different income categories such as the low-income group (LIG), middle-income group (MIG) and higher-income group (HIG). Housing is categorized under LIG, MIG and HIG apartments based on people’s income. While none of the respondents reported cases of extreme torture, harassment and sexual or verbal abuse by their employers, several mentioned unpleasant instances within their employers’ homes.

Shalu, a 40-year-old woman of three, originally from Muzaffarnagar (UP) migrated to Delhi along with her family when she was young. Introduced to domestic work by her mother, she began working as a PDW when she was 14—she mentioned that her employers up until now had been bearable except for the occasional peculiar employer along the way. One of her employers treated her with contempt and asked her to stay away from edible items in the kitchen. She reckoned that this behaviour might have been because she belonged to a lower caste group whereas her employers were from a higher caste. Shalu stated,

We are chhote log, didi (small people, sister), hum log unchi jaat ke nahi hai (we are not from a higher caste group). Some people discriminate against us by caste; however, there is nothing that we can do. After all, we do belong to a lower caste, how can I blame them? But I really needed the money, so I worked in that house for a year.

Further, specific areas in the household were restricted for her, such as the storehouse and puja ghar (a room dedicated to the Gods and Goddesses in Hindu families, often referred to as the temple or puja ghar). She was not allowed to go near those areas by her employer as they recognized it to be pure and holy and the presence of an individual from a lower caste could contaminate such spaces.

Shalu’s experience with her employer elucidated employers’ fear of a servant’s encroachment on the inside space of their homes. The restrictions placed on a servant’s mobility within employer homes point to the delimitation of spatial access for the PDWs which, if trespassed, could lead to unfavourable circumstances. This further induced constant feelings of fear and uncongeniality that seem to play out in the way these PDWs were treated by their upper-caste employers. In India, caste-based spatial segregation remains rife (Thakkar, 2016) and domestic workers are treated as people who are dirty and disposable due to their social standing which denigrates them to these segregated tasks (Sharma, 2016).

On another occasion, she stated that the same employer behaved very strictly while she worked. For instance, she reprimanded if the dishes were not done properly or if there was any occasional dust on the floor, which Shalu mistakenly might have left out. Shalu recalled one such incident where she broke a plate accidentally while cleaning the dishes. According to her employer, the plate happened to be a piece from an expensive dinner set, and thus, they deducted a little less than half of her salary that month. It was during this incident that Shalu realized that she was being exploited by her employer and they were using petty excuses to benefit from her unfortunate situation. Shalu reflected,

Tomorrow they might say something else to me, you never know. People often forget that we are humans, and we can make mistakes too. What if I accidentally break another glass or plate tomorrow? They might tell me that the cost of that broken plate or glass equaled my monthly salary and I will not be in a position to take any action against them. I am just a maidservant (kaamwaali) after all. So, I decided to quit working in that house after I received my (half) salary. Vo aurat badi bekar thi. Haramzadi (that woman was awful! Bastard).

She was short of money at that time and did not have much work either. Losing another employer meant less income till she managed to find another employer. Nevertheless, she chose to uphold her dignity and walked out on that employer. She recalled that specific moment when she felt ‘majboor’ (helpless) while receiving her salary from her employer as they claimed that they would have to purchase another dinner set now that a plate was missing, and the dinner set served no purpose anymore. Despite being aware of the fact that it was some cheap strategy to extort money from her, she stood there calmly and listened. She feared that further argumentation with the employers might trigger the situation more and thus, she decided to leave without any other deliberations.

Together, she pointed out other adversities that most PDWs endured as a part of their job while working for employers. ‘For people like us who work in various houses, we have to be extremely cautious while working; a common fear which we kaamwaalis (maidservants) all have is that of being accused of being a thief if anything goes missing in the household’. Likewise, other participants shared similar anxieties whereby they reported that no matter how kind or generous an employer was, a PDW is never welcomed into the household of an employer.

Consistent with Neetha and Palriwala (2011), my interview findings suggest that the work of a PDW is a difficult terrain to navigate considering the highly personalized and informal service they provide in a workspace that is essentially the employer’s home. They become the perpetual subject of suspicion and are kept under constant watch by their employers. Employers invariably try to keep close control over their domestic space causing additional tensions between servants and employers. Thus, the positionality of PDWs within the hierarchical structure of employment situates them in a complex asymmetrical relationship of interdependency and power with their employers (Anderson, 2006; Williams, 2008). Further, this prevalent social mistrust towards lower caste servants dates back historically as they have long been viewed as untrustworthy and cunning by upper-caste employers (Ambedkar, 2014a, 2014b).

Since PDWs are considered ‘outsiders’ within the household, the disappearance of any household items or money rendered them guilty and accountable for stealing. ‘Just because we are poor and doing this job to feed our family does not mean that we are not dignified. We work with our dignity and labour; we are honest people. If I need money, I will ask my employers’ said Priya, 26, and a mother of two, originally from Malda, who migrated to Delhi with her husband some years earlier.

Sheila, 38 and mother of two, originally from Diamond Harbour (West Bengal), migrated to Delhi after marriage. She mentioned how she avoided visiting the house of her employers when they were not at home. She had been working for one of her employers for over two years and had almost become an integral part of their family. Some months before, the malkin (lady owner) also offered her house keys to Sheila ⁴ . Sheila, however, declined the offer of free access to the household for her own reasons. She explained to me, ‘I do not want to be held accountable for anything tomorrow, one thing goes missing, and they wouldn’t think twice before pointing their finger at a trusted servant. I do not want to take such risks, so, I try to go and finish my work when the family members are present in the household.’

Sheila mentioned that her case with the employer is a rare exception. Most of her friends had had difficult relationships with their employers and, thus, she was exceedingly cautious with her employer. Further, these are not the only challenges that the women PDWs faced when it came to their work, but such challenges could often extend to cases involving personal safety, such as the case of Nisha.

Nisha (34) described an unpleasant incident while working in one of her employers’ households. The employer-family had two adolescent boys, and the elder boy would often make Nisha uncomfortable. She recounted:

The elder son would often come to talk to me in the kitchen with an excuse. He is barely 18, and I am a married woman with children! He would be following me and stare at me while I clean their house and thus, I began to avoid him after some time. I could not even share such details with anyone because I knew nobody would believe me. He is a young boy and fingers would be pointed at my character if I mentioned this to anyone. I felt weak and vulnerable at that moment.

Nisha worked in that household for a couple of months but ultimately quit the job when she felt she could no longer continue under the circumstances. Such instances underlie the recurring struggles that shape the lives of women such as Priya, Sheila, Nisha and many others like them. The women encounter multiple hardships within their workspace on a regular basis in addition to various adversities back home. Many reported their helplessness by saying, ‘majboori thi, didi’ (we were helpless, sister). Nisha reported how she was coerced into working for such employers due to her poor financial condition—her husband had no stable income, and her family depended a great deal on her earnings. She mentioned how safety is also a big concern for many women PDWs like her, and that it is not just the employers, but the women domestic workers themselves who should also be careful in watching their employers.

Thus, the complex relationship with employers gave rise to obscure boundaries, which women like Nisha found distressing to navigate. Ray (2000) noted how women PDWs bear the additional burden of their sexuality while getting hired as opposed to male DWs. Employers look out for respectability and family protection when hiring women PDWs (Ray, 2000). In most families, there remains little to no interaction between female servants and male members of the employer’s household, and the women PDWs rarely interact directly with them. Hence, domestic work within a private setting becomes ambiguous and tension-ridden, especially when unwanted initiations by male members of the family add an additional layer of harassment for the women PDWs. The persistence of such harassment in this occupation can be traced to the fact that this sector of work is largely unregulated, and the arrangements made between employers and servants remain isolated and unrestrained.

Abusive Husbands: Women Domestic Workers’ Experiences with Domestic Violence

The following section underlines the extent and nature of abuse experienced by my respondents in their own homes. Their ways of coping correspond to forbearance rather than contestation as they claim there is ‘no way out’ unlike the option of changing employers to suit their needs. Rita, 36, mother of two, originally from Muzaffarpur (Bihar) migrated to Delhi with her husband some years back in search of better employment opportunities and with the intention of earning enough to be able to settle some of the family’s debts back home. Rita articulated how the changes in her alcoholic husband’s behaviour (which developed over time) severely impacted her as well as her children’s lives. She recounted a couple of instances when she felt powerless and gave into her kismet (destiny) as she awaited the worst that could befall her. After her husband lost his job, he threatened to kill Rita and the kids if she did not provide for his regular drinking. Whenever she was unable to provide him with money, she would find household items go missing as her husband would often sell them off for money. One morning, Rita woke up to find her feet bare; the silver anklets which she had received as a wedding gift were gone. She shook in horror as she found out that her husband had sold off her piece of jewellery to obtain cash. In another instance, this is what Rita recalled,

I cannot spell the horror of one of those nights when my husband had become a drunkard (bewda) and psychotic (paagal) at the same time. My son was very young, and I was pregnant with my second child when he woke me up one night from my sleep. With a shovel in his hand and red bloodshot eyes, he told me calmly that ‘your doom is here now. You are going to die here tonight, and I will kill you with this shovel. Terrified, I fought him and attempted to flee the house, however, I was unable to. Moreover, we stay in slums, and our locality is very unsafe for women at night, it was around 2 in the morning. I did not want to step out as I had nowhere else to go.

She was relieved when the neighbours heard her and came to Rita’s rescue. She recalled her moment of weakness as transitory, an experience she underwent for the first time whereby she was at risk of losing her life at the hands of her husband. However, she mentioned how that moment of weakness also helped her emerge as an independent woman. It changed the course of her life to some extent as it enabled her to take up a job as a PDW compared to before when he did not allow her to go out and work. She said:

I had had days when there was no food in my home. My baby girl had barely turned 5 months, and I had to part with her since I could not feed her regularly at our home. I used to be severely malnourished and barely managed to get through the day with one meal. My body was not able to produce milk after pregnancy.

Rita got teary while explaining her situation. She was aware that her baby would starve to death if she kept her in the home. Her husband’s detached and nonchalant attitude further added to Rita’s concern. Hopeless and dejected, Rita handed over her baby girl to her cousin who lived in another village back home. In the meantime, she worked hard to earn an income and brought her daughter back at the age of five.

While Rita mentioned tolerating her husband’s violent behaviour in the past, she also emphasized that that life-threatening incident proved to be a wake-up call for her and became the moment when she decided to get a grip on her own life. It was also interesting to see how she turned her harrowing experiences into strength and resilience as she stepped out for work and started earning for her family.

DV has become a rising public health concern for women and the WHO acknowledges violence against women as a violation of women’s rights. Further, alcoholism emerged as an important factor that incited violent behaviour among the husbands of my participants. The majority of these women blamed alcohol to be the core problem of DV. According to a recent study in urban Delhi, women who had alcoholic husbands were almost thrice as likely to experience abuse from their husbands comparted to other women (Mukherjee & Joshi, 2021). However, what remained interesting was the fact that none of my respondents expressed strong emotions about leaving their husbands. Instead, they normalized DV as a family matter and were willing to endure the abuse to keep the family together.

Shalu (40) recalled similar experiences whereby her husband sold off their ancestral land back in the village for money. It was only later that Shalu discovered that a portion of their inherited property was sold off by her husband without anyone’s prior knowledge. When Shalu later confronted her husband, she found out that he had squandered part of the money on alcohol. However, she was relieved that her husband was just a ‘usual alcoholic’ with no other ‘bad habits’. She described other instances where her friends were initially cheated on by their husbands to discover later that they were either already married or had children with other women. Shalu believed that alcohol was a better alternative than the former, explaining:

I was married off when I was very young, and I was terrified of my husband; I feared him very much. He had just started drinking then, and maybe I could have stopped him from making it a habit if I had some courage and restricted his drinking. I might have saved his life too; he is sick now, and the doctor says he does not have much time left in his hand. But I was too afraid to question his actions knowing he would beat me if I did so. Now, that I am older and more mature, I feel less fearful. Ladkiyan majboor hoti hai, seh leti hai. Ab toh humari umar hogayi. Humko ab dar nahi lagta (Young girls are often helpless, they tolerate. But I am old now. Now I am not afraid anymore).

She felt that the state of helplessness (majboori) had a lot to do with one’s age, especially when it came to what Shalu referred to as ‘women like us’.

In another instance, Kajol (30) described her experience of domestic abuse from her husband’s family. She lived in a joint family with her husband and in-laws. Her in-laws demanded a massive dowry including cash, household goods and a vehicle during her marriage. Kajol, who is originally from a rural village in the state of West Bengal, had a rough childhood due to a lack of money and resources in her village. However, during Kajol’s marriage, her father had no choice but to sell off their property in the village to fulfil the dowry demands of Kajol’s in-laws. In doing so, although they managed to cater to all their requirements except one - a two-wheeler vehicle - Kajol’s in-laws did not seem content. Thus, Kajol’s father assured her in-laws that he would give them a vehicle after marriage. Now, years have passed, and her father has not been able to keep his word and give the vehicle that was promised to the groom during marriage. Kajol still suffered its consequences from her in-laws, especially her mother-in-law and brother-in-law. She was rebuked by her mother-in-law and if not fed properly at times. She shared:

My maaji (mother-in-law) used to beat me when I was pregnant; I wasn’t fed well, just the leftovers from the meals. On the other hand, my sister-in-law received superior treatment from the family. My husband deserted me as well, and I would be battling with all of them at once. I escaped to my parent’s house, but it did not serve any purpose as they brought me back to my husband. What to do? After marriage, a woman’s home is that of her husband’s after all. I have no right over my natal home anymore, how I wish I could go back there.

Kajol associated her current state with desolation as she tackled her husband and in-laws without any external support from her natal family. During times like these, Kajol found herself struggling between the household dilemmas of her husband and in-laws. She believed that abandonment of a married woman in her husband’s house can be the cause of a woman’s emotional instability. However, her coping mechanism involved spending more time outside her domestic space and having little engagement with her husband and in-laws. Her PDW job allowed her to stay outdoors and maintain minimal interactions with her household members.

Clearly, the lives of women PDWs are difficult and emotionally challenging at the same time. In the next section, I draw upon the women’s lived experiences and individual coping strategies in both the workplace and at home to understand how their strategies may increase the risks of victimization but, at the same time, enable them to offer resistance and negotiate their agency.

Coping Strategies: Towards Resistance and Agency

The above narratives highlighted the different sorts of challenges that my participants were struggling with—from the trust, risk, weaker bargaining power, financial insecurity and caste-based discrimination within their workplaces to DV emanating from alcoholism or dowry harassment at home. The term ‘majboori’ surfaced in my interviews a lot—women utilized this term to associate their state of ‘helplessness’ and ‘compulsion’ in a variety of situations, be they at home or the workplace. The term ‘majboori’ has multiple meanings depending on context. A direct English translation of the word would generate terms like ‘constraint’, ‘compel’, ‘helplessness’ or the phrase ‘my hands are tied’ (Bardalai, 2021). Shalini Grover, in her previous research on lived experiences of the urban poor in India, associated the notion of majboori with ‘duress, lack of alternatives or options, and vulnerability’ (Grover, 2017, p. 25). Alternatively, Pande’s research on commercial surrogacy as a survival strategy among poor rural Indian women utilized the term ‘majboori’ to denote ‘necessity and loss of choice’ (Pande, 2010, p. 301). In this context, the women PDWs’ testimonies of majboori are also tightly connected to a lack of choice, and financial insecurity, compounded with the overall feeling of helplessness and powerlessness in situations that are beyond their control. Furthermore, younger women are more ‘majboor’ as they tend to be more sensitive to their domestic surroundings—as we observe in the case of Shalu who did not resist her husband’s actions when she was young, out of fear of the violence that might ensue.

However, despite adversities, it was also interesting to observe how those women were strategically circumventing their individual restrictions by responding to the challenges both at their homes and workplaces. For instance, Kajol mentioned how she spent long hours outside of her home so as to reduce interactions with her family members. She even absconded to her natal home to escape abuse and torture from her in-laws. Likewise, Shalu mentioned how her age was a key factor—she was too fearful as a girl to resist her husband, but, with age and maturity, she was able to question his actions. Concerning individual workplaces, their experiences were not different. Although they mentioned how they were subjected to mistreatment at their employer’s home, nevertheless, they found ways to negotiate their boundaries as PDWs with tactful manoeuvring of situations. For instance, Sheila politely declined the offer of free access to her employer’s house, and Shalu decided to walk out of her employer without engaging in any squabbles as she felt it was not worth her time.

Participants’ narratives reveal that their individual responses to exploitation and DV—circumvention, resistance and rebuilding—are not direct and distinct. In fact, they chose to navigate their immediate surroundings through tact, manoeuvring and patience (Thakkar, 2021) rather than subversion or open confrontation (Thakkar, 2018). Thus, on the one hand, women PDWs seem to internalize their employer’s expectations of servitude towards them and accept their exploitative working conditions. On the other hand, they dynamically engage in chiselling out ‘spaces of control’ (Giddens, 1982, p. 197), revealing their individual responses to power structures in the absence of wider solidarities or collective action. As such, those women seem to adopt ‘subtle strategies’ or ‘subtle agency’ (Bell, 2012, p. 285), located within the framework of resistance, to regain control within their own lives. Expanded within the gender and development discourses, subtle agency encompasses the broad range of efforts that women employ to pursue positive changes in their lives without stirring up wide-scale dissent (Scheyvens, 1998, p. 237).

Nevertheless, despite women’s individual strategies to circumvent restrictions and boundaries, it is also important for the Indian government to take matters in hand and ensure equal access to rights and resources for workers employed in the sector of domestic work. National/state intervention and support remain minimal when it comes to addressing the needs of domestic workers in the Indian context. The fact that ‘domestic space’ is still predominantly considered as familial, and private, coupled with a form of labour that comes with a complexity of wage rates, poverty, social stigmatization etc. have made the PDWs function outside the purview of labour laws wherein the government holds no responsibility for their security and well-being (Neetha & Palriwala, 2011). Although the government of India has drafted the National Policy for Domestic Workers (2017) that ensures the rights and social protection of domestic workers formally through legislative measures, it remains to be materialized. The Protection of Women from the Domestic Violence Act 2005 was also brought into force by the Indian government and the Ministry of Child Development on 26 October 2006. However, throughout the past decade, budgetary constraints have been projected as the main reason for its failure, while other inherent problems have remained invisible (Agnes & D’Mello, 2015). Nevertheless, it is still a step forward to recognize the problems faced by domestic workers in India and an attempt undertaken to establish suitable actions to address their needs effectively.

As an upshot of the state’s lack of interest in the needs of informal sector women workers, their lives are shaped independently of the state whereby they perpetually depend upon their emotional capacities to cope with their work-related challenges and adversities. This research and interviews underline the conviction of the women domestic workers toward their psychological and emotional shift rather than relying on any external support for need-based assistance. Through this research, I explored the lived experiences of women PDWs which are manifested in the form of financial insecurity, caste-based discrimination, workplace-related mistreatment and domestic abuse. What also emerged are the constant attempts by those women to cope with their immediate surroundings which materialized because of the personal undesirable experiences that the women are subjected to in their lives. In that, I draw upon the differentiated accounts of resistance and circumvention that the women employ to fight their challenges and exert a stronger positive control over their lives.