Maid, Caste and Religion....any connect??

Rina was taking care of our house, even before I got married. The transition was so natural that it did not matter to me at all that Rina (our maid) faces west when she prays to God and I face east for the same. She celebrates Eid with fire crackers and sweets; I do the same at Diwali. She has named her daughter Aarti because someone she trusts, gave her that name. It doesn’t bother her that people judge her or her daughter by the religious connotations attached to the said name.
But being hired as a maid is difficult. it is not difficult because of Police verification or lack of employment opportunities.It has several other factors to it. Infact, my recent visit to beauty parlor was a real eye-opener about employment of maid in any household. It was interesting to know what goes in the mind of a woman when she decides to hire a helping hand. Unknowingly I became witness to one such conversation going on in the parlor during my beauty therapy session.
I was not new to this particular subject of conversation, but I never bothered to listen to others. But this time the conservationists almost pulled me in to lend an attentive ear to peep into their world.

The main body of conversation was around the qualification of the maid to be hired. Religion and caste were being the first criteria to choose a maid (as if maids are available in plenty). Being born to a set of parents who belonged to a certain race can either hamper or improve chances of employment as a helping hand in a household, was a very new view of life to me. Also different ways of praying to go God is also a big factor influencing chances to get work in different households. At times belonging to a certain caste or following a particular path to reach to God is the only make or break reason to hire a maid or servant. A Bangladeshi maid was more than welcome, because she spoke their language and prayed to God the way they approved of. But our own country woman was not welcome, since she has different schedule of fasting than what they followed.

I always thought that clean crime-free background, Police verification, good knowledge of household work, cleanliness, culinary skills, etiquette, being responsible, affordable and more such factors were to be looked into before hiring a helping hand. So this revelation was an eye-opener for me that caste and religion comes much above for people, especially women.

When I got a micro-level view of the situation, it was even more interesting. Once the helping hand is hired, the work delegated is again also as per the casteism qualification. She will not enter kitchen, she will only help in food preparations and not cook the meal. She will not enter the in-house mandir, she will not clean the toilet, or touch the toilet seat, She is only for cooking and will not touch other stuff at home, etc.

What comes first is not whether the person is capable of doing the particular job or not, it’s their caste, religion that matters the most. Discrimination, which starts at our own house, is the discrimination, which discriminates us among our own people; in the name of Religion and Caste.

Are you also discriminating with human beings at some level?