Why there is concept of house maids and peon in South Asia?

[Raja.Pakistani]

I have seen that even middle class people hire maids to do their house work i .e mean cleaning, washing, cooking etc and they are often treated as slaves. You also have peon in government offices who even bring water, tea and food on table of manager and others high rank official and do their home tasks as well. We observe same thing in army where they give you one servant(batman) to serve you and your family. I don't find this concept of maids in rich western countries where everyone is independent and do their own work .I have seen that even directors of company do make tea for themselves and wash their cups and even asked junior if they also want tea before making for themselves. We don't have working women as much as we find in western countries so i don't get where this concept of maids came from? Are we lazy? or we have plenty of money(doubt on this one) or we love to take advantage of poor financial conditions of people ?

 

[Ayush]

cheap labour,easy availability. perhaps a show of status too.

 

[livingdead]

you dont see much in western countries because labour is expensive. The minimum hourly rate you have to pay is around 7 pound, which is around 1700 pound per month.
Not many families can afford it but rich people do have full time nannies and other personal helper.

BTW they used to have servants when poor people were available abundantly at cheap rate.
There is nothing wrong in having servant/maid, as long as you can afford it and treat them as human.

 

[Chronos]

you dont see much in western countries because labour is expensive. The minimum hourly rate you have to pay is around 7 pound, which is around 1700 pound per month.
Not many families can afford it but rich people do have full time nannies and other personal helper.

BTW they used to have servants when poor people were available abundantly at cheap rate.
There is nothing wrong in having servant/maid, as long as you can afford it and treat them as human.

Plus you have the machinery in western countries like dishwasher, that reduces the

Maids are labour intensive and cheaper in South Asia.

As for abuse, unfortunately it is ingrained in our psyche.

 

[JanjaWeed]

Inequality among citizens in South Asian countries. There is a huge gap in the economic condition among different sets of people. Population is divided in classes... these are the most common causes which results in superior-subordinate culture!

 

[Dubious]

I have seen that even middle class people hire maids to do their house work i .e mean cleaning, washing, cooking etc and they are often treated as slaves. You also have peon in government offices who even bring water, tea and food on table of manager and others high rank official and do their home tasks as well. We observe same thing in army where they give you one servant(batman) to serve you and your family.

Not sure where it originated from but a mindset has developed that somehow it shows class or something...

I don't find this concept of maids in rich western countries where everyone is independent and do their own work .I have seen that even directors of company do make tea for themselves and wash their cups and even asked junior if they also want tea before making for themselves. We don't have working women as much as we find in western countries so i don't get where this concept of maids came from? Are we lazy? or we have plenty of money(doubt on this one) or we love to take advantage of poor financial conditions of people ?

Habit of living luxuriously on luxury we dont have....and yes lazy can be one of the attributes...Maybe if women started at least doing house work we would have people minding their own business instead of snooping around for gossip...

In the west we have hourly rate hence not everyone can afford it and the $ or £ is just too preciously earned to waste it. The rate for such luxury is weight per hour but even those who say Westerners who move to Asia or Middle east, even they adopt this luxury habit/ culture/ fashion and get a maid....So I guess it is a mindset / environment...

Plus sitting ideal is not in fashion in the West....Mind you thought the West are considerably rich but they still will not spend on things which are not an absolute necessity!

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

you dont see much in western countries because labour is expensive. The minimum hourly rate you have to pay is around 7 pound, which is around 1700 pound per month.
Not many families can afford it but rich people do have full time nannies and other personal helper.

BTW they used to have servants when poor people were available abundantly at cheap rate.
There is nothing wrong in having servant/maid, as long as you can afford it and treat them as human.

No, I never seen rich people with personal servant in western countries .You will see that rich and powerful there are more humble well that's my experience .I mean even their ministers are not living as luxurious life as ministers in our countries who keep servants for everything even for their pets lol I have never seen a very rich guy have servant who bring water for him on table or do such little personal things which he can easily do for himself. They even give respect to people who work under them and never let them feel as if they are superior to them. I feel it also has more to do with our mindsets than whether we can afford servant or not. Strange thing is most of our women are housewives and don't have jobs but still they keep maids

Not sure where it originated from but a mindset has developed that somehow it shows class or something...

Habit of living luxuriously on luxury we dont have....and yes lazy can be one of the attributes...Maybe if women started at least doing house work we would have people minding their own business instead of snooping around for gossip...

In the west we have hourly rate hence not everyone can afford it and the $ or £ is just too preciously earned to waste it. The rate for such luxury is weight per hour but even those who say Westerners who move to Asia or Middle east, even they adopt this luxury habit/ culture/ fashion and get a maid....So I guess it is a mindset / environment...

Plus sitting ideal is not in fashion in the West....Mind you thought the West are considerably rich but they still will not spend on things which are not an absolute necessity!

Yea its another point that western people don't like having maids and servant in their houses to interfere in their privacy and private life which i guess is very good thing There are people out there who sexually abuse their female maids in their houses. i mean i don't get why a healthy women who don't have full time job and stay at home 24/7 need a maid who should do things for herself. Why a officer in government department need to ring a bell for a peon to ask him bring water/tea for him ? Why army officer need a batman to polish his shoes and do his laundry? why he cannot move his *** for few minute and do it himself ?

 

[livingdead]

No, I never seen rich people with personal servant in western countries .You will see that rich and powerful there are more humble well that's my experience .I mean even their ministers are not living as luxurious life as ministers in our countries who keep servants for everything even for their pets lol I have never seen a very rich guy have servant who bring water for him on table or do such little personal things which he can easily do for himself. They even give respect to people who work under them and never let them feel as if they are superior to them. I feel it also has more to do with our mindsets than whether we can afford servant or not. Strange thing is most of our women are housewives and don't have jobs but still they keep maids

ministers are not rich people. Some ministers are(this is tory govt after all), just check all the lords and dames.. and their household.
And the areas in chelsea where billionires live.

Did you know charles satchi and nigella dawson were defrauded to the tunes of thousands of pound by their maids... front page news for last one month..

Like I said, when this country had abundant supply of poor people, lot of relatively rich people could afford maids. The welfare system, minimum wage and relative prosperity put and end to it.
I am talking about UK specifically, dont know which 'west' you are talking about.
What has being humble got to do with having personal helper, they dont abuse their servants here, mostly.

Just out of curiosity, do you visit rich households, how do you know they dont have maids and nannies.(and servants)

Plus you have the machinery in western countries like dishwasher, that reduces the

Maids are labour intensive and cheaper in South Asia.

As for abuse, unfortunately it is ingrained in our psyche.

Mechanization (household or for industrial jobs) gets push in west because labour is expensive, not the other way round.

 

[sur]

I have seen that even middle class people hire maids to do their house work i .e mean cleaning, washing, cooking etc and they are often treated as slaves. You also have peon in government offices who even bring water, tea and food on table of manager and others high rank official and do their home tasks as well. We observe same thing in army where they give you one servant(batman) to serve you and your family. I don't find this concept of maids in rich western countries where everyone is independent and do their own work .I have seen that even directors of company do make tea for themselves and wash their cups and even asked junior if they also want tea before making for themselves. We don't have working women as much as we find in western countries so i don't get where this concept of maids came from? Are we lazy? or we have plenty of money(doubt on this one) or we love to take advantage of poor financial conditions of people ?

Nawabaan Dee Nasal Wich Joo Jammaayy Naay.

Mughlaaan Dee Awlaad.

I hate having servants at home, but this decision is not in men's control mostly. I could never ask any of them to do anything for me. I washed my own dishes, clothes, fetched glassed of water. I cannot eat delicious meal when there is a staff member standing staring at me. I would either ask them to be served same meal or politely ask them to go away. Thanks for bringing up this topic.

 

[Secularpakistani]

I have seen that even middle class people hire maids to do their house work i .e mean cleaning, washing, cooking etc and they are often treated as slaves. You also have peon in government offices who even bring water, tea and food on table of manager and others high rank official and do their home tasks as well. We observe same thing in army where they give you one servant(batman) to serve you and your family. I don't find this concept of maids in rich western countries where everyone is independent and do their own work .I have seen that even directors of company do make tea for themselves and wash their cups and even asked junior if they also want tea before making for themselves. We don't have working women as much as we find in western countries so i don't get where this concept of maids came from? Are we lazy? or we have plenty of money(doubt on this one) or we love to take advantage of poor financial conditions of people ?

Because we are lazy people.

 

[Dubious]

Yea its another point that western people don't like having maids and servant in their houses to interfere in their privacy and private life which i guess is very good thing There are people out there who sexually abuse their female maids in their houses. i mean i don't get why a healthy women who don't have full time job and stay at home 24/7 need a maid who should do things for herself. Why a officer in government department need to ring a bell for a peon to ask him bring water/tea for him ? Why army officer need a batman to polish his shoes and do his laundry? why he cannot move his *** for few minute and do it himself ?

Another reason why West doesnt have "maid system" is because most of the houses are relatively small and requires less maintenance while people living in hawali in Pakistan cant expect 1 daughter in law to do everything apart from that laziness and the need to feel in power is really sad!

 

[Chronos]

Americans still hire Nannies though.

It's one of the hispanic stereotypes