Daily hassles, pandemic and coping mechanisms: Case of women domestic workers in India

Day-to-day functioning of a woman domestic worker is full of challenges at work place and in the home environment. Pandemic lockdown generated additional unprecedented stress. Most have migrated to the urban city with the hope for a future better than what they anticipated in their respective rural settings. Without complete knowledge of what to expect, they have landed in places of residence and a kind of occupation, both having serious concerns attached to them. Struggles for basic amenities of life, deteriorating environmental conditions related to sanitation and hygiene, high density of population, meager resources to sustain a family, societal apathy towards their plight, occupational hazards, exploitation and gender-based discriminationare only few from amongst many other concerns which can lead to physical as well as psychological ill-health for any individual. Focusing on the case study of two women domestic workers, this paper adopts the phenomenological research design utilizing an unstructured interview method of data collection with an aim togainperceptiveness into the subjective reality of lived experiences of many other such women, who in spite of the situations that could drag them down into a state of helplessness, have found ways of coping. The study manifests the physical and mental resilience that women exhibit, and emerge stronger each passing day succeeding in managing their affairs and the responsibilities of home and workplace.The study has implications for contributing towards providing more credence and status to this sector of occupation which continues to remain as a faceless and defenseless group.