Swadhin/Paradhin (Freedom/'Unfreedom')

A staple of household life in India, domestic workers form the ever-increasing class of people struggling for an official labour identity, and consequent labour standards considered commonplace and irreplaceable elsewhere. Three interrelated aspects of the industry-- the identity of the Indian domestic worker, power idioms of worker oppression, and legal, even ideological, structures--need to be looked at in order to alleviate their oppression.