A domestic help defaulted on EMIs for the first time during the lockdown.

Another had her salary credited to her bank account by her employer during the lockdown.

A virtual session on Tuesday discussed the impact of the pandemic on domestic workers, sharing the findings of a study.

The session brought together domestic workers and employers, besides rights activists and government representatives.

“Both workers and employers are part of this session so that we can go beyond the narrative of one group pitted against the other. We have to keep in mind that many employers have also lost their income,” said Smita Khator from the People’s Archive of Rural India, a digital journalism platform, who moderated the session.

The findings of a study on around 15 women domestic workers conducted during the lockdown were shared at the session. Some of the findings:

• Some workers have lost jobs, while others have returned to work with lower wages
• Many are caught in debt cycles after borrowing money from banks, relatives, neighbours or employers
• Ration through the public distribution system was inaccessible or inadequate; many relied on ration distributed by NGOs or political parties
• Employers now don’t want to employ workers who have multiple employers, that is, a worker who works in more than one household.

Anchita Ghatak of Parichiti, the NGO which conducted the survey, shared some snippets while revealing the findings of the study.

The husband of a domestic worker used to cook at social occasions. The couple had borrowed money from a bank to start a business. The husband was out of work because of the lockdown. The wife continued working during the lockdown. She ran the family but defaulted on EMIs for the first time because of the lockdown.

Amid persistent allegations of non-payment of dues to domestic help for not being able to report for work, the study came across a domestic worker who had her salary credited to her bank account during the lockdown.

With the resumption of suburban train services, more and more domestic workers are going back to work. But employers are now wary of help who work at multiple households, the domestic workers who attended the session said.

Elderly couples are especially wary of letting outsiders in, they said.

A number of elderly couples who hire domestic help from help centres are opting for 24-hour deals to minimise the employees’ exposure to other people, a precautionary measure against Covid-19.