E-Paper
Bengaluru techie sparks debate by citing affordable domestic help in India: ‘Maid for $35, driver for $250’
A Bengaluru-based trader and software developer has sparked a debate by praising the widespread availability of affordable domestic help in India.
A Bengaluru-based trader and software developer has sparked a debate by praising the widespread availability of affordable domestic help in India. Mahesh Reddy was responding to a racist post about India when he cited cheap labour as a perk of living in the country.
Reddy said that domestic workers are available at a reasonable rate in India, allowing him to hire a maid and a driver for as low as ₹3,000 per month and ₹22,000 per month respectively.
The polarising post
“I am lucky to born in India, especially after visiting many countries,” he posted on the social media platform X. The reasons Reddy gave included “I can get a maid or domestic help for 35$ a month. She can literally take all cleaning work including rest rooms” and “I can hire a full time driver for whole month for 250$ a month”.
The post has gone viral with 1.6 million views in a day. However, many objected to Reddy’s take on the issue of cheap domestic labour in India.
Why the debate
Some people criticised the post as insensitive, classist, and tone-deaf, even if the intention was simply to express gratitude. Social media users noted that by highlighting low wages for maids and drivers as a benefit of living in India, the post frames another person’s low income as a personal convenience.
Also read: Indian woman compares domestic workers in Delhi and Chennai, triggers backlash: 'Too much to expect respect?'
“You live like this at the expense of someone else’s misery. That someone is an unfortunate Indian. The reason why you can’t afford a maid elsewhere is because everyone live a good life,” wrote X user K Marwat.
“Striving for a good quality of life for each and every citizen should be the aim. Not being able to hire cheap help is infinitely more brag worthy than bragging about how poor/desperate some of our fellow citizens are,” wrote Nirav Patani.
“Notice how 'lucky to be in India' is almost always a synonym for cheap labor to most people? Do you ever stop and think about how the cheap labor thinks they are unlucky to be born in India,” a person added.
The post sparked a wider discussion on the Indian economy and dignity of labour.
“This is not a flex. To keep someone working at sub human wages is literally privileged India speaking. In developed world they have minimum wages for exact same reason,” one X account said.
