Covid tales: Finding, sustaining house help is dream come true!

Amid the pandemic, salary demands of house helps has increased manifold. Denizens share their not-so-great experiences.

‘How many members?’, ‘How many rooms?’, ‘How much rest time she’ll get’, ‘Can we get a corona test done?’ are some of the questions one encounters when hiring a full time house help these days. In Covid-19 times, the challenge is not limited to finding a trained house help, but to sustain one and alongside afford the surged commissions of agencies or individuals who help procure house helps. Here’s what some denizens and agency owners have to say.

Denizens share how difficult and expensive it has been to find a house help amid the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo: Shutterstock (For representational purposes only))

‘Most maids are in their home town’

Praveen, who runs a maid agency in Delhi, says, “Kaafi problems hain abhi kyunki most maids are in their hometowns. So, there’s a scarcity of maids. We’re taking a commission of ₹40,000 per year, and have to pay the on-ground agents too. Salary bar hain maids ke, ₹10,000 to ₹12,000. Khaana add karke 15,000 tak chala jaata hai per month ka. Woh pehle paise gaon mein dete hai. Unko leke aane ka kharcha nikalna, woh bhi mehenga pad jaata hai. Ek do maid ka covid test bhi karwake diye.”

₹25k commission is normal

Shyam, from a Delhi-based agency that provides maids, says: “There are different rates for dusting, cleaning and cooking. For a four-bedroom house, the salary of a house help is ₹15,000. For such deals, the commission we take is about ₹25,000. Yeh toh normal rate hai aur itna hi chal raha hai. It all depends on the maid. If she agrees to work in ₹12,000 or ₹14,000, then only we send her. Unko bhi aise ghar jaana hai jahan hygiene accha ho.” Another service provider, citing anonymity, says, “We provide semi-trained maids for ₹10,000, fully-trained for ₹14,000-15,000, and commission ₹25,000 for 11 months. Hum toh corona test bhi karwa ke dete hai.”

‘Our full-time help just disappeared’

Suman Mehta, a Gurugrammer, whose full-time house help went absconding recently, says, it’s difficult to sustain one these days, and that you have to be “lucky” to get a good one. “We had a bad experience with a full-time help. She was a first-timer who didn’t want to work hard. Halaki humne clear kiya tha kya-kya kaam hai. Kisi ne usko behka diya. She just disappeared and didn’t tell anyone, not even her father. We were quite in shock. We pampered her so much, ordered clothes for her, too. Jo agents ya middlemen hote hain woh dono ko kharab karte hai. You do get help easily, be it a cook or one for laundry, but you have to be lucky to get a good one,” she adds.

TV and rest break are pre-decided

A Delhi-based homemaker, on the condition of anonymity, says: “Our maid used to dictate ki TV dekhne ka time bhi achhe se chahiye, din mein rest ke liye minimum two hours chahiye. Kaam bhi yeh dekh ke lete hain according to members. We didn’t have a house help for two weeks as our old help decided to go to her village out of the blue. And every agent we called, was asking us exorbitant prices as his commission in lieu of arranging a house help, ranging from ₹30,000 to ₹40,000.”

‘Zamana bada kharab hai’

Delhi-based homemaker Himani Dhingra, says, “We have a joint family living in a duplex house. Do din us maid ne bahut acha kaam kiya. But then she stole our dresses, clothes of our kids, sandals. We still don’t know what all is missing from the house. Only jewellery and cash was left. Zamana bada kharab hai. After seeing the CCTV recording, we saw that she accumulated all the stuff in a men’s coat cover. Usko tokri ki tarah sar pe le gayi. We’re just thankful that hamare bacho ko nahin leke gayi. She stole other maid’s mobile and clothes also.”

Author tweets @Nainaarora8

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