Abstract
In the metropolitan and urban areas of India lakhs ofp oor women and girls earn their livelihood serving in houses as house-maids who clean utensils, mop floor, look after babies, purchase vegetables, milk and household items from the market for their employers. They perform their duties in two shifts – morning and evening – daily without any leave. They are paid meagerly. When due to illness or some other urgency they remain absent for a few days, they are often verbally fired from the job or are paid less monthly wage. In many cases they silently bear mental and physical torture, even sexual harassment in the households. But they have no other alternative but to work to eke out their livelihood. Similar is the plight of whole time domestics working ten to twelve hours daily on a very small wage, bearing all sorts of maltreatment. The present paper seeks to explore the conditions of these women, most of whom belong to the dalit category.
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