Maids get Gurgaon lifestyle TOI

Now thats a little too much. I agree they deserve a nice lifestyle but who is responsible for these salaries. Isn't it competition between the people who are hiring them and therefore the market getting spoiled. Have your salaries risen 5 fold in the last decade???

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Konica Roy, 26, makes %Rs 35,000 a month. She loves Goa, but settled for a vacation in Ooty, which was nice too. Nimi, 18, earns Rs 25,000. She bought a dress at a Zara sale to match a Louis Vuitton gifted to her by a former employer. The money's not a fortune but considering that most domestic workers in India don't even get minimum wage, it's a tidy sum.

Placement agencies say salaries of domestic workers have gone up considerably in Gurgaon. Many of those working in high-end condominiums started at salaries of Rs 4,000-5,000 some 10 years ago but are now making around Rs 25,000 a month. "Of the 50 maids placed by us last year, some 40 are earning more than Rs 20,000 a month," says Rajesh Kumar of JMD Consultancy. Lovely Singh of We Care says more than 60% of the maids placed in 2012 in luxury residential projects are today drawing salaries of over Rs 18,000.

Just the starting rate for a cleaning or cooking job is Rs 8,000, and it only goes up with experience. Agencies say Gurgaon residents are willing to pay a premium to ensure retention which is a major problem in the area. Their clients do include NRIs and expats, but both Konica's and Nimi's employers are Indian families.

With salaries increasing, lifestyles, too, have changed. Konica, for instance, visits salons twice a month for mani-pedis. A housekeeper who manages a staff of four for a family living in the upscale Magnolias apartments on Golf Course Road, she pitches in with the cooking and cleaning when required.

"I have learned everything on the job. Children speak good English here and I. I picked it up the language from them. They use computers and I learned a little bit from them. Thank God for sending me to Gurgaon," says Konica, who was 16 when she moved here from a village in Bengal's Bardhaman district with a former employer.

Today, she lives with her husband in a one-bedroom re8ntal apartment in Sector 28, which is furnished with an AC, fridge refrigerator and LCD TV. She has a part-time maid to clean up and do the dishes. And when she WhatsApps using her smartphone, it's always in English.

English comes more naturally to Nimi, who is from Manipur. She moved to Gurgaon in 2010 with her cousin sister. "I used to share an apartment with my friends from Manipur. One of my friends helped me get a job as a maid. I learnt house-keeping and cooking on the job," says Nimi who has bought a 250 sq yard plot in Neemrana.

She now does the cleaning in two houses at Nirvana apartments, Sector 50, making Rs 25,000 a month. She is planning to buy an iPad soon, which will help her surf the net better, and keep her informed about the next Zara sale or new restaurants deal. "I am a big foodie and I love shopping. I love Chinese food at Monk in Galaxy and salads at Roots Cafe. But KFC is my all-time favourite," she says.

Taruna, another maid from Kolkata, has been in Gurgaon for 12 years, and now earns Rs 30,000 a month doing cooking and managing other domestic workers, while her husband makes Rs 20,000 as an auto driver and car cleaner. "The city has given me everything. We have all the basic comforts at home. We go to the movies every second weekend. I love visiting malls and restaurants," she says.

She also manages to save every month. "I deposit over Rs 10,000 in bank and also pay instalments on a Jaipur plot," she says, revealing she owns another plot in Kolkata, her hometown.

Flying high on her success, Taruna still has one more dream to fulfill. "I haven't been on a plane. So next year, I plan on taking a flight back home to Kolkata for the holidays," she says. more