Maids have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of amiddle-classa urban
households in India. Despite the fact that increasing numbers of poor women are
joining this profession, very little has been written about them, especially the
part-time domestic workers, each of whom services a number of households at a
time. They are not accorded their rightful status as workers either by the
employers, their own families, the Government or traditional trade unions.
Isolated in the privacy of employersa homes, the problem of recognizing their
work or organizing them is the same as for women isolated in their own homes.
Another important reason is that most