MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

DOMESTIC SERVICES

Generally, uneducated persons who cannot seek good jobs are found working as domestic servants. Only the families in higher income groups employ the services of domestic servants. Domestic servants are employed in urban areas as well as in rural areas. However the nature of work performed by the servants differs in rural and urban areas. Domestic male servants in rural areas have to work hard in the farm and in houses of the farmer-owners and they are known as saldars or gadis. Servants in villages are paid either in cash or in kind or both. But the female workers have to do all the household work in their owners' house. The domestic servants employed in urban areas are for full-time household work or for part-time household work such as cooking, washing clothes and cleaning the utensils. The Census of 1951 showed that 2,491 persons were engaged in the services for domestic purposes. The employment in these services however increased to 3,270 in 1961. Of these, 970 were males and 2,300 were females. This shows that the number of female workers as domestic servants is higher than that of male-workers. Of the 3,270 domestic workers, 2,776 were employed in urban areas and 494 in rural areas.

The 1971 Census records 2,592 persons as employed in "personal services" in the district, of which 1,710 are working in urban areas and the remaining in rural areas. The 1971 figures reveal a decrease in the employment figures of personal servants in the district when compared to the employment figures in 1961. There are in all 1,375 establishments as per the Census of 1971, offering employment to personal servants, of which more than a half, i.e., 796 are located in urban areas and the remaining in rural areas.

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