Housing societies in Delhi lay out rules for domestic help; violators may bear consequences

By Joymala Bagchi
New Delhi [India], May 20 (ANI): With domestic help, drivers and cleaners returning to work even as cases of coronavirus continue to rise in the national capital, residential complexes have imposed strict guidelines and tough penalties for violators.
In some housing societies only around 50 per cent of domestic help have resumed work while the remaining have been asked not to come. Those who have more than one domestic helpers have also cut short the requirements to just one, with resident welfare organisations urging flat owners to call their help only if it an absolute necessity.
Most housing societies are complying with government guidelines such as the mandatory wearing of a mask, hand sanitisation, thermal checking, washing of hands among others. However, other precautions such as no touching of lift buttons, changing clothes after entering the house, avoiding entry of domestic help into the rooms of elders, pregnant women, and children under 10 years are been followed.
Residents' welfare association (RWA) in South Delhi's Navjiwan Vihar has 270 households in which 1,000 people reside.
Dr. Ruby Makhija, Secretary, Navjiwan RWA, Navjeevan Vihar said, "we have around 1000 residents in our society and all have been communicated through WhatsApp to follow all the guidelines stringently. The guidelines we have provided lists ensuring that the help/driver/ cleaner is not coming from a containment area. It is advisable to avoid public transport for them if possible and instead walking/bicycle/two-wheeler should be preferred. Entry in the colony gate register is a must. He/She should enter the number of all the households of the colony that she will be visiting."
Dr. Makhija continues, "However, we have advised our residence that on humanitarian grounds not to penalise help and refuse them leave for missing out on work. We are preparing ourselves to fight this unprecedented situation together with awareness."
Mohan Narayanan, Secretary, Yamuna Apartments, Alaknanda said, "we mandatorily do thermal scanning of whoever comes inside the society. As this virus is contagious, wearing masks and using sanitizers have been made compulsory while following govt guidelines."
Domestic help have started getting back to work ever since the lockdown 4.0 was announced.
Narayanan, in addition, said, "We are allowing seniors citizens or residents who need to go to the office to call their domestic help. Otherwise, many households are still managing on their own which has reduced the total number of domestic help in the society relatively but we are paying the full salary to all."
As confirmed COVID-19 cases in the national capital reached to 11,088, people are scared of contamination and are opting for several measures to stay safe and avoid the atypical occurrence. (ANI)