In the grand, bustling bazaar of Guwahati's domestic help scene, finding the perfect domestic help is like hunting for a needle in a haystack – if the needle charged by the hour and took weekends off. From territorial tussles worthy of a soap opera to the financial balancing act that would make a circus performer proud, hiring help has become a saga of epic proportions.
ALSO READ: Union Budget 2024: Major Reduction In Customs Duty On Mobile Phones, Chargers & Parts
In other metropolitan cities, there are unions and even brokers who would help you find the perfect domestic help, but that is not the case in Guwahati. Over the years, there has been a scarcity of domestic workers in Guwahati.
GPlus conducted a poll across its app and social media platforms asking the people of the city 'if they think there is a scarcity of domestic help in Guwahati’ and from almost 500 respondents, over 80% replied 'yes', many stating their own experiences.
Antareep, on the GPlus Instagram post, commented saying, “Well it’s a different condition in the apartment. So basically there are two maids in my entire building of 24 families and they are not good and they don't allow any other domestic helpers to enter even if the owner brings her. My mother is getting old and needs a good helper and maid but we are stuck with two bad maids who don’t have time, do work of below-average quality, and take so much money.”
This also sheds some light on how these domestic help are territorial. For instance, domestic helps who cover most areas in Ulubari and reside in Birubari wouldn’t allow the helpers who live in Sijubari but who seek to work in the Ulubari area.
Then there is also the MONEY factor! These days most demand the amount which middle-class people can’t afford. And even if you can afford it, any single extra task on any given day would charge you an extra amount.
While talking to GPlus, Deepika, a resident of Rehabari, said, “My domestic help is busier than I am. It took me six months to find one after my previous help went home to Bengal (her home) without informing me. I work in a bank; it’s very difficult to manage without any help.”
Some other residents of Lal Ganesh, Beltola, and Ulubari highlighted similar problems – ranging from asking for too much money to taking too many leaves, which many mentioned that even the corporate and government employees don’t get.
In Guwahati, there’s also the ‘freelancing’ domestic help, who would work in an Urban Company style. They will come once a week and do all the household chores whenever required and charge almost ₹2000 - ₹5000 per day. Some people who are desperate enough to keep their house clean and unable to find help tend to seek out these helpers.
A resident of Guwahati, who now lives in Mumbai, told us about his experience in metro cities, where your domestic help would work not based on the number of tasks but on the number of hours. So, if there’s cleaning, dusting, and washing involved and it takes around 2 hours, they will charge the same even if they do only two tasks but in the same two hours.
Another person who lives in Bengaluru said, “Here there are people and even online forums where you can search for domestic help and based on your needs, they will provide you the ideal help.”
GPlus also tried talking to a few domestic helps in certain areas including Ulubari, Panjabari, Paltan Bazar, and Gotanagar to understand how the system works in their world. They spoke out on conditions of anonymity, afraid that if the people they work for come to know, they might lose their jobs.
“I have timings for my houses. I cover most houses in Ulubari to RK Mission Road area. I start working at 7 AM and I cover seven houses, the last house getting over at 4 PM. Each house has its own requirements so some might need less time and some more,” one of the domestic helpers said.
On asking if the domestic help in Guwahati is territorial, she laughingly said, “Of course!”
“That’s how our world works. Earlier it wasn’t like this, but now if we don’t set territory, we won’t be able to sustain. It’s a very competitive business, just like any other.”
Another 52-year-old said, “The younger ones can work in 7-8 houses in a day, we are old, we can’t so we take what we get. There are some families where I have worked for almost 12 years now. I have seen the children grow. I can’t leave them.”
On asking about the high salary demands, most of them said that it’s because the prices of things are going up. “We have children who we send to good schools, we don’t want them to become domestic help, that needs money. That’s why we raise the demands.”
Some also mentioned that they do understand if some families can’t meet their demands, they meet them halfway.
It is to be noted that this report was compiled after talking to 13 domestic helpers who have been working in different areas of Guwahati. GPlus had an in-depth conversation with them to understand what was the reason for the extravagant charges.
On average, a domestic helper works in 4-5 houses, with an average of ₹3000 per house, which brings her monthly income to ₹15,000. This is to be noted that the calculation is only based on an average of ₹3000 earnings per family.
The monthly salary ranges from ₹15,000 - ₹30,000, depending on the number of houses they work at and how much they charge.
Interestingly, we found that in 2009, the basic pay of any domestic help was somewhere between ₹500 - ₹1500 depending on how many rooms they have to cover cleaning, how many members are there in the family and so on. This number was steady for the next few 6-7 years but then it started picking up again. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, wages have surged almost triple in many cases.
“I started with 500 for only brooming and mopping in 2009. I was in my twenties when I started working at only ₹200 and in the next 7-8 years that increased to ₹500. During the pandemic, a lot of us lost our jobs. After everything went to normal, we took up more jobs to recover. We started with ₹1500 for brooming and mopping now. This is for a nuclear family who lives in 2 BHK. If family members increase like in one I do where there are seven members, I charge ₹6000 for cleaning rooms and cutting vegetables for them,” the 52-year-old help stated.
As residents juggle their lives and bank accounts, the quest for reliable assistance often feels like a full-time job in itself. So, while we wait for a miraculous maid union or a digital saviour to emerge, perhaps the best advice is to keep calm and carry on.
