Lopamudra Mahapatra, Week 7

Perspective Of Women Domestic Workers

Practices of purity and pollution have been a critical area of inquiry in paid domestic work relations in India. The author revisits the idea of purity and pollution in the space of the home in paid domestic work, but with the intent to turn the gaze around. It shifts the focus by looking at workers as the subjects and examining their responses. It argues that the existing frameworks for looking at the space of home and the practices of purity and pollution are limiting and have to be revisited to develop a dynamic understanding of the everyday reality of domestic work and caste hierarchies at work. The status of women in the Indian context cannot be understood without studying the gender basis of inequality. The existing inequalities and imbalances have resulted in creating differences among different groups of women. In order to understand the nature of the constraints and disabilities that affect women in the performance of their multiple roles in society, the economic and political dimensions play a vital role. Thus, women have to be seen, not as a homogeneous group, but as members of different sections of the population according to the differences in their levels of social existence. Keeping this in mind, the author seeks to examine comparative features of women belonging to Dalit and Non-Dalit categories.