Life and Work of Women Domestic Helpers in the Urban Agglomeration of Asansol- Durgapur in Bardhaman District of West Bengal: A Case Study

Domestic servants now known as domestic helper or house help, emerged as a ‘class’ due to socio-economic change in society. They are the support system of an urban household. Domestic workers form one of the largest informal sector workforces in urban areas that too lower class women the majority. However, the nature of their class has regional specifications and features. Similarly rural and urban areas portray different pictures of domestic workers. Socio- economic backwardness makes them vulnerable to exploitation and violence. Bardhaman (presently Paschim/ West Bardhaman) district of West Bengal, India emerged as an industrial hub on the map of Bengal post 1947, the country’s year of independence. Economic disparity intensified resulting in the growth of an acute hierarchal order based on imbalanced economic distribution. Number of domestic workers increased with every passing decade and they comprise a considerable female workforce in towns. The research paper attempts to highlight the lives, work, every day struggles of a large marginalised section of women workers and also construct their identity as individuals through some specific case studies. Several studies have been conducted on domestic workers in recent years however they fit in the large corpus of macro studies centring the capital cities in particular. Present research is a micro level initiative to bring forward the picture of women domestic workers in the urban agglomeration of Asansol-Durgapur, the two most industrious and populous city of Paschim Bardhaman.