Journalist and author Tripti lahiri tells ANANYA BORGOHAIN about the intricacies of hiring a help as she talks about her book, Maid in India
Was it a conscious decision to collate your work experiences in the form of a bookIJ
Professionally, I had actually written bits and pieces about class and inequality in post-liberalisation India but that was related to housing. In the course of that reporting, I had come in contact with a lot of workers. I got interested in their lives, the issues they face, their aspirations etc. Eventually, I did not want to do just an article and so this took the form of a book.
Initially it was like taking a needle out of a haystack because there were numerous helps, agencies, brokers, employers that I wanted to meet. There was also a lot of reading to do in records that involved court cases. like the case at MP Dhananjay Singh’s house when their live-in help Rakhi had died. The details of the case brought to the fore the happenings in South Avenue, the area where the Singhs lived.
Then I also reached out to friends for help. For example, Gauri Singh, who runs The Maid’s Company (a hiring service for maids that also ensure equity for the housekeeper) is a friend’s friend. Through her, I went to a few training sessions for maids and in them I met some fascinating, young, independent women working as maids. I also found out about the Varmas from Sunder Nagar (who have helped their housekeepers and secured their family members’ lives) in relation to a court case.
To get rid of the initial hesitation, I had to walk them through what I am researching on and explain to them in detail what the book was about. NGOs were also a bit indecisive at first but eventually everything shaped up well.
Was there any trigger that drove you to write on domestic helps in our countryIJ
Well, at some point during every gathering, one sees people complain about their maids and how much menace they cause for their employers. At the same time, it’s amusing because they could have all these parties and chatter because there are maids at their houses to clean up after they are done. This realisation stuck with me. I was keen on finding out where these helps came from, how they landed up in the city, how they survived, what they wanted, and so on. It also made me wonder all the more about things like how do we know whom to hire, what is the benchmark, how could I be a fair employer etc.
You write about a girl named Mae, who is not allowed to talk to her mother for a year by her employer, whereas back at her native village in Assam, communal riots displace 400,000 people. At this point, you say “And we are privileging the dramatic, a common journalistic technique”. Journalists do tend to do that. So as an author, how do you distance the journalist in you so that you don’t sound melodramatic or overly romanticise situationsIJ
I don’t think I could have written any book at all if I didn’t have experience as a journalist. If you are a journalist, you learn to interact with people of different kinds and fields. As far as objectivity is concerned, I was genuinely trying to learn more about this topic and not come across as an activist. I wanted to explore a wide range of experiences and share that.
Among these experiences, any that moved you deeplyIJ
I really liked knowing lovely, a young, ambitious help whom I had met at a knocking class (where they teach housekeepers how to knock). I wondered if she would end up as a married woman staying in her house or working at the mall which was her dream. She was also in conflict with two older women in her life.
How did exploring the lives of helps affect youIJ
It made me look at a different side of the workers. Often they were such friendly and charming people. It made me realise that a part of knowing someone else also depends on what kind of a person you are yourself.
The middleman is a controversial figure and yet he/she is in all fields — housing, education, arms dealing, surrogacy, et al. In this case, however, the brokers are also crucial because they are conducting background checks and bringing people with whom one may leave one’s house and children. What did you feel about thisIJ
The middlemen I met did not just bring maids but also went out of their way to rehabilitate the maids and ensure their welfare. like Santosh Srivastava and his wife, proprietors of the SK Group Placement Service. They are not just another recruiter but also make sure that the helps they hire are taken care of. Most of these middlemen are former cooks, drivers, nannies and so they understand the work culture.
What is the work culture like for helps outside IndiaIJ
Well, Hong Kong is a good example. Maids are sponsored by someone and the law requires that they live with their employers. I think the minimal wage is 4,000 Hong Kong dollars but they are required to have health insurance and day offs.
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Maid in India is written by Tripti lahiri and published by Aleph Book Company, Rs599