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Poverty
India is home to over 1 billion people, and 42% of Indiapopulation falls below the international poverty line. According to the World Bank, they live on $1.25 a day..
It is a challenge for many to survive amidst the prevalent unemployment and rising food prices that are the two major causes of concern. Hard-hitting situations like these put women under enormous pressure to sustain their families. Countless women are left with no choice but to take up poor-paying jobs such as domestic help, factory workers, daily wage workers, helpers, cooks, cleaners, etc.
An Account of One Woman’s Struggle
To better understand the struggles that occur one such woman, Fatima Bi, works as a domestic help in the city of Bangalore, the Information Technology hub of India.
Fatima Bi was born in 1957 amidst poor neighborhood housing. It was a place where mainly daily wage workers of a tobacco factory lived. She was the third child of three brothers and an older sister. Her two brothers died in their infancy, and one other brother died when he was 14 years from drowning in a local pond. Fatima’s family lived in a tiny rented house of just one room. Her father used to roll beedies (beedi is aIndian Cigarette made of tobacco wrapped in tendu leaf,and secured with colored thread at one end) which earned him a daily wage - just enough to feed the family for the day. Fatima and her sister did not have formal education due to their tough financial conditions.
When Fatima was 10 years old, her father died. The family fell into further hardship as he was the sole bread winner. The girls were then looked after by their aged grandmother, who started stitching clothes for the neighborhood people to meet the expenses of the family. When her elder sister reached 17 years old, she got married. The marriage took place by selling off a piece of family land (owned by Fatima’s grandmother) in their village.
Two years laer, Fatima too was married to a local person, who worked as a beedi worker at the factory. This too was arranged by selling the family land that remained in the village. The first few years Fatima and her husband lived at his sister’s place, as they had no other home to stay. Later when Fatima gave birth to a daughter, her husband rented out a small one room house nearby.
Things started to get tough, as they now had to pay rent. Fatima’s husband at that time started a small tea shop to meet other expenses alongside a chit fund. A Chit Fund is a kind of savings scheme practiced inIndia.But all dreams shattered when his chit fund scheme ran into huge losses because of phony members leaving him in huge debts. Whatever they had saved by venturing into the tea stall business had to be paid off to clear the debts.
Her husband began working as a cook at weddings, and other functions, and Fatima joined an Agarbathi (incense stick) factory making thousands of incense sticks in a day. She used to work from 8 in the morning till 5 in the evening and her pay per day was Rs.50 only! She worked at this factory for 10 full years before retiring. She soon joined hundreds of poor domestic helpers, and started working as a maid. A domestic maid is the most common and underpaid worker in India.
Typically, a domestic maid works for more than 10 hours a day doing tasks such as washing clothes, cooking, cleaning the house, washing the car, and others. Fatima Bi was now sweeping and washing floors, washing utensils, clothes, cooking meals in not one, but 4 houses each day. She did this as she was worried about her daughter’s wedding because dowry had become a social obligation even in Muslim families. Working hard, they married off their daughter.
Fatima was a generous lady. She never shied from helping those in need even when she was under dire conditions. She would share food, and listen to a crying heart. She was known for her kindness in her neighborhood.
Reduced to a Single Income
A couple of years later, Fatima’s husband’s health began to deteriorate making him unfit to work further. Fatima had to look after her husband’s medical care, pay rent, and also look after her daughter’s well being as her son in-law’s family expected a lot in dowry.
Seeing no other way, Fatima took up more houses to work as a maid. She used to leave home at 8a.m., with often tea being her only breakfast, and she would work in 5 houses till 9.00p.m. in the evening.
Fatima’s main concern was her husband's failing health. She could not afford proper treatment. She borrowed money from her employers for her husband’s medical checkup. Sadly, He was diagnosed with lung cancer. Fatima was devastated. But she was determined to get treatment for her husband, in spite of being unable to do so. She took out a lot of money as a loan from her employers regularly. However, the following year her husband passed away.
Widowhood
Fatima, now aged 52, still works in several houses to repay the loans she took out during her husband’s treatment. Today, she stays alone with a female cousin who is also a widow.
"I have no plans for the future, but as long as Allah the Almighty grants me strength, I will work to earn my livelihood instead of begging, she said.
Although she has no bank balance, no son to depend on, no fixed deposits, and no regular income, Fatima has been ever-willing to help her poor neighbours even if she has to starve.
Fatima’s life depicts the extraordinary zeal of ordinary people, striving for a dignified life. Hers is a story that reflects the hardships faced by thousands of women who work as domestic maids. Often these maids are ill-treated by their employers, who look down upon them.
We must acknowledge the fact that these women are working hard for their families’ well being, sacrificing their wishes throughout. We must emphasize their cause and look after them like Almighty Allah says in the Qur`an:
{Alms are for the poor and the needy and those employed to administer the (fund); for those whose hearts have been reconciled to truth; for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer.}(Al Baraat 9:60)
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