New Delhi, India: Munni Begum was 10 when her mother made her drop her last name. At that time, she did not understand why. She often accompanied her mother and grandmother as they juggled multiple cleaning, cooking and caregiving jobs in the Indian capital, New Delhi.
But it was only when Begum, now in her late 50s, started doing domestic work herself that she learned that all the women in her family had to pick up Hindu-sounding names at their workplaces in order to survive.
“They just won’t hire us,” she told Al Jazeera. “They hated us Muslims. Some of them said it to our face that we are bad people. So, Munni was a name that went well with both [Hindu and Muslim] communities.”
Begum recalls her widowed mother would go to work wearing a sari and bindi that are traditionally associated with the Hindu culture. “And my sister used to work even on Eid al-Fitr to avoid suspicion,” she said.
Having worked for more than 40 years as a domestic worker, Begum said she faced discrimination and insults at many Hindu and Jain households. She said she was turned away at many homes because of her Muslim identity.
“I had to raise my children on my own, my husband didn’t support me at all. It was so difficult,” she said.
Everywhere I go, they ask me about my identity. I know how to make food but they won’t give me the cooking job because I am a Muslim.
The number of domestic workers in India – where Muslims make about 15 percent of its 1.5 billion population – is unknown.
The International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, says while official statistics place the number at five million, there could be anywhere between 20 million to 80 million domestic workers in India.
Courtesy: Al Jazeera
