Lakshmi --- story of a servant maid with self-esteem
Our common perception of servant maids is not so good. We tend to believe that they are word dodgers, and will do anything to get things done. A few robberies that were attributed to servant maids, and reported in the press, makes us apprehensive about them.
In reality, the truth is totally different. They fill an important gap in our lives. They actually help us to have that much of an extra time. This extra time is used to educate our children, think about a small holiday to a nearby place and so on, particularly in places, where the servant maids get to live in the houses where they work. In such cases, they are treated somewhat better, with free food, and some help to educate their children.
Be that as it may, there are thousands like Lakshmi, who works as a servant in my house, at Sholinghur,in Tamil Nadu, some sixty kilometers from Vellore, a district headquarters town, known for its world class hospital called the Christian Medical College.
Sholinghur has a population of around fifteen hundred thousand people and ours is a gated community, which is a TVS company colony. Since all of us work in the same company, belonging to the prestigious TVS group of Chennai, we are provided with some basic comforts and more than adequate water supply and security.
Lakshmi works in at least three other houses as a servant apart from mine. Of course, she has to clean and swamp a portion of our house (we take care of the rest of the house), wash all food vessels and wash a few clothes as well. Ours is a duplex house, and she does not need to care about the first floor, where we live. We are the highest pay masters, as we give her eight hundred rupees per month, and food everyday, the quantum of which is not fixed. An early bonus is also given, and some help in terms of "advance' is also given.
I jolly well know that the salary is a pittance, and add at least fifty every year.. However, for comparable houses and work, she gets paid only seventy five percent or less, and others blame us for pampering her.
She is quite good at her work. However, she has to compulsorily spend most of the two thousand odd rupees she earns every month, only on food. For any ailment, she gets some treatment at the Government hospital. She manages to get some rice from the ration shop, through her friends, as she still does not have a ration card. In Tamil Nadu, every card holder with limited income, is given twenty kilograms of free rice every month.
What stands out is her will power, and to stand out on her own. Her drunkard husband goes to work, as a painter of lorries, once in a way. Her only son is married, and works on contract with the TVS company. Her only daughter is also married, and her husband does some odd jobs for a living.
Lakshmi had studied up to the eighth standard, It becomes very interesting when she comes to explain the latest in cell phones. She is quite smart and does know more about smartphones than any of her peers in the township. She is quick to understand the value of education, and always talks about giving something to see that her grandchildren are far better educated than her own.
She bears the beating of her husband, but does find the guts to question him or even challenge him. When she was sick in the recent past, the useless husband was found drunk for most of the day. He never cared about his wife, but Lakshmi would still not talk ill of him.
Her tolerance limits are quite unique. She does not get angry when someone demands extra work. She is quite happy that for most of the day, her stomach is full, with the food and coffee that she gets from the places of work in the township.
Lakshmi does take holidays on some pretext on the other, but most of these are announced holidays. My family members and others have managed to cope with this problem, as we understand that she becomes very tired, and does need a break.
In spite of some support we give her, it is worth pondering about the fate of people like Lakshmi, who do not have any social security. The Tamil Nadu Government is contemplating some action, to give them some sort of provident fund. However, if this forced on households, there is a grave danger that the households will simply stop employing servant maids.
The vicious cycle of poverty always haunts people like Lakshmi. Her self-esteem is still fine, and she can teach a lesson or two to many others who grumble that they do not have enough, when in reality, they have much more than people like Lakshmi.
In the lower middle classes or people who live on the poverty line like Lakshmi, or below it, have one great problem --- the irresponsible attitude of men, who are supposed to be bread winners.
Nine out of ten such men take to alcohol in a big way. No one can ever stop them. They beat their wives almost everyday, like a ritual that they like to do. Worse, most of them, unlike Lakshmi, bear all the insult and the physical pain.
The men have sex of the highest order, and even when they have children, they do not change their ways. The case of servant maids like Lakshmi, is always one of suffering, of pain and of sacrifice.
On the other hand, we are ourselves guilty, because we do not give high wages. What was one hundred per month, twenty years ago, has become eight hundred per month now, and even for this amount, there are many people who grumble.
Of course, our salaries have risen some four hundred percent in these years, and we do have the cushion of several perks, that help us in times of need. For example, health insurance. People like Lakshmi have not even heard of the health insurance of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Social security is not a mere jargon. We need to break our heads to find out how we can make the lives of people like Lakshmi far better than what it is now. However, she will continue to have the self-esteem that she always has and the devotion to work, that he happily exhibits, everyday.
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