[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I dont want to give her any money. I have suggested we will buy the uniform and books for her next year. Also take her tutions on weekends.
.

Giving money will not solve their problems, buying uniform, cloths and some books should do the trick. Ley your maid pay the fees, also lend a helping hand if see needs some money for the fee, but remember you just lend the money and keep the expectations right.


Pramod

[Gansan]

@spitfire
In your place I would assess the maid's children,and undertake to foot the school fees,unform and books expenses for the brightest one till he/she finishes school. In fact if a few of you pool together, you can take care of the educational needs of two/three children up to school final level,on condition that the mother does not make them work and allows them to study. Beyond that God will show them a way. They will not be studying in any fancy school, so it will not be very expensive.

That is how we help the downtrodden in our area. Actually those are the lives to which we can really make a difference; If even one child from that background studies and breaks out of the vicious circle, he/she will pull up the entire family to the next level. I am a volunteer to an NGO which is involved in such activities, and I have seen a few real life fairy tales.

In fact the Infosys foundation runs a center in Bangalore for training children from such backgrounds for Call centre/BPO jobs. I visited this place last February to study if the model can be replicated in Chennai.

[shankar.balan]

lets be realistic
india is a poor country and this kind of thing does tend to happen. Charity begins at home like they say so I guess you could try and help the maid partly fund the girls education, books uniform on the condition that she sends her to school and that once a week the girl comes home and shows her notebooks and lessons to you, as well as the test results every now and then. This may be a good way to enforce the rule nicely and gently and yet, with firmness. you could contact the Parikrama foundation - they provide first class education for under-privileged kids!

I understand how you feel because i feel the same - each time we go to a mall and possibly have a snack at a food court or somewhere, we invariably see a cleaning lady or someone else around who may never be able to afford a meal in that same place, but throughout her workday is forced to see people splurge, waste and so on. Imagine how horrible that must feel especially if she has hungry kids at home to feed.

charity begins at home so lets try and do what we can for those who serve us and for those in our immediate neighbourhoods - at least we will begin to make some kind of difference.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

My maid gets her 14 year old daughter(who goes to school) along with her to help her out in the chores. They come at around 6 in the morning and leave in about 45 mins. Our maid has taken up too many houses in our colony and cannot complete them single handedly so gets her daughter. So the mother washes the vessels and daughter sweeps the rooms. It is very disturbing for me and my wife and we reasoned with our maid that she should stop this. But she does not relent and makes a sad face and says I need the extra houses/money to fund the education of her 2 kids.

The daughter has taken a liking for our 2 year old son and comes home in the evening after school to play with him, she also gets to eat some food at our place and watch TV along with my MIL until her mom comes to pick her up at 1900.

Should I continue this arrangement or put a stop to this? Me and wife are at our wits end trying to make the maid understand. We asked her to stop coming to our place but she started crying. So now we just swallow our helplessness and go to work.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Gansan

undertake to foot the school fees,unform and books expenses.

In fact if a few of you pool together, you can take care of the educational needs of two/three children up to school final level,on condition that the mother does not make them work and allows them to study.

No I dont want to foot their school fees. Why because I want the pride of educating their children with their own money to be felt by their parents. I dont want the parents to miss out on that. Nothing works when everything is available without any effort.

I will try and analyse the shortfalls, look at the money being earned by the family on a monthly basis and see how I can get them better work which will pay just that required to help the children study comfortably with their own parents money. The maids husband is a watchman with no constant pay and guards over a number of shops in the market. I want to see how I can regularise his income better.

More when I get back to India. I need to take this up myself. All this I got after I asked my wife to quiz them about their earnings and expenses.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

you could contact the Parikrama foundation - they provide first class education for under-privileged kids!

Interesting, will talk to these guys.

charity begins at home so lets try and do what we can for those who serve us and for those in our immediate neighbourhoods - at least we will begin to make some kind of difference.

I will speak to the rest of the folks they work at but not looking at any help presently. Each one has their own worries and commitments and taking our a responsibilty which is long term would not be a prospect for many.

Note from Mod: Thread closed.

[bblost]

An Update:

Infosys sacks techie, suspends two for criminal acts - India Business - Biz - The Times of India

Chakraborty was arrested with his wife Sinchita by the Bangalore police on Dec 29 for allegedly torturing their 15-year-old domestic help.

On Chakraborty, Pai said he joined the company 15 days before his arrest. "We suspended him after an inquiry into the child abuse, which is a very sad thing to have happened," Pai said.

As the police were investigating the case and the accused was in judicial custody, Pai said the company would take strict action against him after the law had taken its course.

"We do not condone such acts. We are saddened by such an inhuman act. We have 109,882 employees on rolls. I think as we grow bigger, we are not the sample but part of the universe," Pai said on the margins of a media briefing on the company's financial performance for the third quarter.

Chakraborty and Sinchita, who hail from Kolkata, brought the girl from West Bengal for household chores. A social organisation rescued the girl after raiding Chakrabortys' house following a tip-off that a young domestic help was in a bad state with injuries on her back and cut marks on her lips. The police did not name the victim to protect her privacy and not to hamper investigation.