Since the Covid-19 lockdown started, Nasrin Begum has barely had time to rest. The mother of a toddler has been taking care of both her household chores and office work for the last two months – often single-handedly.
“I couldn’t keep employing my household help. The flat owners’ association in my building barred any domestic help or driver – who live outside the building – from coming to work, fearing they might bring coronavirus into our building,” Nasrin, a resident of Dhanmondi, said.
Her husband, who is also working from home, hasn’t been of much help.
“Almost every day, I cook and do office work simultaneously. Many times, my food got burnt on the stove while I was attending a work meeting on Zoom. Other times, I messed up in my work emails because I was trying to console my crying three-year-old,” a frustrated Nasrin told Dhaka Tribune. “Sometimes, I wish I had 10 hands like Goddess Durga – maybe then it would be easier.”
Nabila Mahmud Upoma, a service-holder who lives in Mohammadpur, faced a slightly different problem.
On the morning of March 24, her household help called her to say she was going to her village home and would stay there until the Covid-19 crisis was over.
“You can hire someone else if you want, Madam,” her domestic help was considerate.
Upoma thought she would be able to handle it all, but within a week, she was overwhelmed.
“Constantly busy between household chores and office work, I realized how dependent we working women are on our domestic help,” an exhausted Upoma told Dhaka Tribune.
What Nasrin and Upoma have been going through is a common scenario in most Dhaka households these days – especially the ones with working women – since Mid-March, after the first detection of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, and the first report of death due to the highly contagious and fatal disease.
Whether the domestic helps were barred from coming to work or they quit and went back to their villages, it’s working women who are suffering the most – having to deal with managing their households and taking care of their children, on top of keeping up with work responsibilities.
While sharing their lockdown experiences with Dhaka Tribune, many women said they seldom received any help from their husbands, who are, in most cases, busy with their own work.
Some women said they did get some help from their partners in taking care of the children.
How are the domestic workers doing?
According to a 2019 survey by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), about two million people work as domestic helps in the country. About 960,000 of them are employed in Dhaka households.
Of the two million domestic helps, around 1.2 million work on a contractual basis – they are more commonly known as “Chhuta Bua” – and are majorly employed in Dhaka and Chittagong.
Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, most of them are now jobless, without no source of income. When they will be able return to work is uncertain at this point, as the lockdown in Bangladesh – a general holiday enforced on March 26 – has been extended several times to contain the transmission of the disease, seeing as the number of infections and the death toll are rising every day.
So, without any job, how are they getting by?
Nari Maitree (Women’s Solidarity), a private voluntary development organization, and Oxfam conducted a short-term survey in March-April on Chhuta Buas. They spoke to 83 domestic helps in four worst Covid-19-hit areas in Dhaka – Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Khilgaon, Badda – and found that 25% of the domestic workers are in touch with their employers. But only a few of them are still getting their salaries. Many of them are getting relief.
Only 5% are still able to go to work, the survey found.
The matter of pay
Ruksana Parvin, a domestic worker, told Dhaka Tribune that she lost her jobs only a week after the general holiday came into effect, as the flat owners’ committee in the building she worked in decided to bar Chhuta Buas from coming in.
“I used to work in five households and earned Tk7,000 per month. After losing my jobs, I spent all of my savings within the first 10 days of the lockdown,” said Parvin, who lives in a slum in Dhaka’s Kallyanpur area with her husband, who can’t work due to illness, three children, and mother-in-law.
She said one of her employers supplied her with some food, and she received wages from two other employers, but it’s not enough for her family.
Jahanara Khatun, another Kallyanpur slum resident and a domestic worker, said her employer asked her to not go to work and stay put at home. But she is still getting paid.
“My employer is very caring; she keeps checking on me to see if I’m okay. I need her support to survive,” Jahanara said.
Both Jahanara and her employer are eagerly waiting to see an end to the Covid-19 crisis.
For Nazma Anwar, a housewife, having a household help is a massive privilege she can avail for only Tk2,000 per month.
“Our domestic helps provide us with cheap labour so that our homes run smoothly,” said Nazma, who lives in Mirpur.
“I cannot allow her to come to my flat right now, due to the safety concerns in my building. But I am paying her salaries, even if she cannot come to work,” Nazma said.
