Exploitation, Harassment and Violence: Lived Experiences of Women Paid Domestic Workers in India

Shriya Thakkar

Journal of South Asian Development, 2024, vol. 19, issue 1, 44-60

Abstract: Women paid domestic workers (PDWs) form an integral part of the informal labour population constituting two thirds of the total domestic workforce in contemporary India. The sector of domestic work is largely stigmatized and is often synonymous with low occupational prestige, servitude and being ‘dirty’ and menial. Thus, women PDWs are often exposed to unpleasant working conditions in their employers’ homes as well as social surroundings. Further, many of these women are also victims of domestic violence (DV) in their own homes. This study shares the lived experiences of work-employer relationships, hostile work conditions and DV through the lenses of women PDWs’ narratives. The article also chronicles the women’s hardships, suggesting the exploitative nature of domestic work and how it exposes women PDWs to additional adversities in the form of discrimination and harassment in employers’ homes and DV within their own domestic setting. It concludes by showing a pattern of survival among these women who endure countless challenges within both the workplace and home and employ coping strategies to navigate hostile domestic environments. The findings offer crucial insights into the limits and capacities of women PDWs’ struggles.

Keywords: Lived experiences; domestic work; women domestic workers; domestic violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09731741231164872 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soudev:v:19:y:2024:i:1:p:44-60

DOI: 10.1177/09731741231164872

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of South Asian Development
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().