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Domestic workers are among those who took part in a February protest in New Delhi demanding a guaranteed minimum wage and other protections. In January, an Indian court did not support a petition on their behalf. Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times/via Getty Images hide caption
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Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times/via Getty Images
"Hey, fatty, why are you so late?"
That's how 37-year-old Meenakshi's employer greeted her when she showed up for work half an hour late on a January morning this year, in the southern Indian city of Chennai.
Meenakshi had been up since the crack of dawn. She'd cooked breakfast and lunch for her two children and for her husband, who works as a taxi driver. Her daughter had an event at college for which she had to wear a sari. She needed her mother's help to get dressed. It took longer than they'd both expected. Meenakshi knew she was running late, so she skipped breakfast and rushed to work.
The harsh words stung. "I'm not usually sensitive, but I blinked back tears that morning," she says. "I've worked for this particular family for eight years and have been a domestic worker for 18 years. I know that toiling away in rich peoples' homes is about tolerating thousands of pinpricks in my heart such as these," she says. "We don't get even the most basic respect."
Meenakshi asked that she be identified only by her first name out of concern that sharing anecdotes about her employers might result in loss of work.
Negotiating wages has been a frustrating experience too. Last year, around Diwali time, Meenakshi asked the family to consider paying her an annual bonus of 1,000 rupees (the equivalent of about $11) in addition to her monthly salary of 3,000 rupees ($33).
"They fired me," she says, bewildered. The couple, who both work in India's IT industry, told her she should be content with the sari they gift her every Diwali and not ask for more.
They called her back after a week, when they couldn't find anyone who would take on her chores at the same salary.
"I needed the money too," she says, "so I swallowed my pride and agreed to come back."
A court says no
That issue of fair pay for women workers, particularly those who do domestic labor, is making headlines in India these days. On Jan. 29, Pen Thozhilalar Sangam (PTS), a union dedicated to the rights of women domestic workers, along with other nine other workers' unions in India filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), petitioning the Supreme Court to ask them to recognize domestic workers as a legitimate work force and to address their needs in India's revised labor laws.
In November 2025, the government of India consolidated 29 older labor laws into four new labor codes. These new laws aimed to bring India's work force on par with global standards. It involved setting a better standard wage, providing social security, safe working conditions and health insurance to laborers. However, domestic workers weren't mentioned in the new labor codes, says Sujata Mody, president of PTS. One of the earliest laws in India to protect unskilled workers is the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. "Workers brought their specific issues through courts and changed how this law was implemented over the years. This was possible through advocacy, activism and litigation," she says. "These four [new] labor codes have now repealed all earlier laws and are junking the [labor] struggles of the last 70 years. We have to start again, with weaker laws"
In addition to determining a minimum wage for domestic workers, the unions' petition asks for the recognition of domestic workers who are predominantly women, on par with other workers, to consider their rights and to include them in the new labor laws.
India doesn't have a single national minimum wage. It varies across industries and regions. In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the minimum wage is 19,319 rupees ($213) per month for unskilled labor and in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, that figure is 6,000 rupees ($66) per month.
"The petition is the result of a sustained collective effort over the last year and a half. Domestic workers, union leaders and lawyers worked together for many months to produce a document grounded in the lived realities and documented cases of domestic workers' lives," Mody says.
On January 29, the Supreme Court rejected the petition.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi refused to issue directions to India's federal government and to the states to fix a mandatory minimum wage for domestic workers. The Court raised concerns that mandating minimum wages could lead to "every household being dragged into litigation by trade unions," and cause many household employers to stop hiring domestic help.
The status of domestic workers
"Domestic work in India is often not seen as real labor like factory work, but rather as a private, informal arrangement, done by a predominantly female workforce," says Prabha Kotiswaran, professor of law and social justice at King's College London, who assisted the unions in filing the petition.
Kotiswaran is the lead researcher on the legal recognition and valuation of women's unpaid domestic and care work in India, particularly through her project the Laws of Social Reproduction.
"Employers should recognize domestic workers' legal rights," she says. "They remain essential to the functioning of countless Indian households so they cannot be excluded from protection by labor laws."
Next steps
On Feb. 4, domestic workers and trade unions urged the Supreme Court to reconsider their petition.
However, it is unclear if the court plans to re-assess it.
The situation doesn't surprise her, says Mody. "This is how we've been treated [by the legal system] for the last 80 years [since Indian independence]," she says. PTS was established in 2001, because "we rarely found women able to represent themselves in the labor market," Mody says.
"We want the law to make a clear estimate of the time spent at work, to fix a fair wage for this time and to give workers a paid weekly day off and annual leave, on par with workers from other industries. The household should be a safe place to work, but often, it isn't. We ask for a redressal mechanism for complaints, be it a wage violation or a human rights violation," Mody says.
Human rights violations in this line of work — like discrimination based on caste and sexual harassment — often go unaddressed.
A protester's point of view
Vijay, who's 58, has worked in homes in Chennai since 2007. She attends union meetings regularly. On Feb. 4, she stood shoulder to shoulder with other protesters on the streets of Chennai, urging the court to reconsider their plea.
She says the judge's decision not to entertain their petition was heart-breaking. "Don't we matter at all?" she asks. "By not defining our rights, the court is basically forcing us to leave our well-being in the hands of individual employers. That's so unfair," says Vijay, who asked that her full name not be used out of concern that speaking about past and current employers could cause her to lose work.
When her three sons were growing up, she knew that working as a domestic help was the only way she could afford to pay their school fees. "In addition to doing my own cooking and cleaning, I've worked in four other homes, spending roughly three hours in each everyday," she says. Her average work day would start early at 6 a.m. and stretch on for 10 to 12 hours.
"There are times when no one offered me a meal or even asked if I had eaten through the day. Their focus is on getting their work done," she says. Her first meal of the day was often at 4 p.m., after she mustered the energy to cook it herself once she was back home, in between shifts. Her adult sons support her now, so doesn't need to work as many hours anymore, but she still remembers the utter exhaustion she felt when she was raising her kids. Things haven't changed for domestic workers and there are some problems, like discrimination, that are harder to deal with, she says.
India's caste discrimination (a centuries-old social hierarchy that divided people based on birth, family lineage and traditional occupations, with some professions being seen as superior and others not) makes earning basic respect from employers harder, Vijay feels. When she first started this work as a young girl, she was startled when her employer — who hailed from a higher caste — insisted that she used the back door to enter the house.
"I was so naive when I started out," she says. When her employers invited her to their son's birthday party after working hours, she recalls being very excited. When she turned up however, they made it clear that they had only called her to do the dishes. "That's when the hard realities of caste hit me," she says. "I would never be looked on as an equal, with affection or as one of the household. That's why I found the court statement very insensitive," she says.
Meenakshi says her activism is inspired by all the issues she's faced in addition to low pay and lack of respect. She participated in the protests as well and put up posters detailing the rights of domestic workers on the streets in her employers' neighborhood. She recalls days when she's still had to go to work when she's running a fever, taking drugs to cope. In some homes, she says she's experienced sexual harassment in the form of unwanted advances, lewd remarks and physical intimidation. "I decided then that I would never work for single men, though there are no guarantees that it won't happen elsewhere. I still feel a lot of fear and anxiety when I start work in a new household," she says.
As protests unfolded around her over the last few days she says she's reminded of the hardships they've all faced. And she hopes that the court will give their petition a second chance.
At the moment, it is unclear if the courts will reconsider their judgement, but "the unions will continue their campaign for statutory minimum wages and broader legal recognition," Mody says. "We won't give up on our fight."
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t
