Milind Yadav Week 7

Week 7

Of Rasoi Ka Kaam/Bathroom Ka Kaam – Perspective of Women domestic Workers

Author Sonal Sharma provides a very critical perspective on the very ancient practice of “purity” and “pollution” in life of paid domestic workers through social understanding. The socially accepted feminine identity of women is one where she engages herself in removing the “dirt” of the house. She further acknowledges that the fundamentals of “pollution” and “dirt” can’t be engaged individually, rather they are related to each other like relation between “sexes, castes and material objects in a space”. It is being further argued that differentiation created by the employer in segregating the ones to be employed is based on hygiene and purity and not as much on the caste of the individual. The lines of differentiation are substantially different in scope of home and outside. Home is place where only member of same “social space” are welcomed and domestic workers intervene in employer’s close space with their lower social standards. Workers in employer’s house are not just the one removing the dirt but also, a representation of “dirt, disease and danger” itself. Sonal argues that it most of scholarly idea workers are seen as passive individuals who are eager to get hired by the employer but in real even workers play a very active role in deciding who can hire them for their household chores. In context of India, Hindu workers are not willing to work in Muslim workers house and vice versa, in complexion of workers don’t want to work in “dirty” houses which comes through regional and religious stereotypes on the lifestyle of the employers.