An ethnographic study on issues and challenges of domestic workers in the district of Gurgaon, Faridabad and South Delhi was conducted during the inception of the project. The data was developed in the form of stories which covered four broad areas:
• Daily routine
• Issues and challenges
• Life history- Her story
• Skilling

The data collected reflects the socio-economic profile of the respondents, basic working conditions, nature of work, social security and issue and challenges at work. Some of the findings from this study are as below:

The average age of a domestic worker is between 20-27 years. Nearly 88.57% of workers who were interviewed were married, while 8.57% were widowed and 2.85% were unmarried.

Domestic workers in Gurgaon have a marginally higher average income. Workers in Faridabad are at the lowest.

For domestic workers in Gurgaon, the average working hours is 7.9 hours per day and they work in at least 5 households. For domestic workers in Faridabad, the average working hours is 8 in at least 6 workplaces and for South Delhi it is 7 hours in 4 workplaces.

The findings indicated that while a large number of domestic workers from South Delhi are engaged in washing, cleaning and care work, workers from Gurgaon prefer cooking as it ensures a substantially higher wage. This also reflects on the marginal higher income of Domestic workers in Gurgaon.

While 21% of workers are allowed to take up to a maximum of 2 leaves per month, 6.71% of domestic workers from South Delhi shared that they are not allowed to take any leaves in a month and if they do take any, then their wages for that day is cut. 4.28% of workers from Faridabad shared that they are only allowed to take 1 day leave per month. But on the other hand, only 1.4% of workers shared that they have been allowed to take more than 3 leaves in a month.

Nearly 87% of the respondents do not have a bank account, which means all their earnings are received in liquid cash and are spent/saved likewise. 63% of respondents do not have Aadhar Card, 79% do not have ration card while74% do not have BPL Card.

97% of the workers who were interviewed shared that they have the sole responsibility of all the household chores. All the workers shared that they are also responsible for cooking all the meals and they sometimes end up eating dinner at 10:00 – 11:00 pm which they prepare upon their return from work.