Research and Publication


1. Commuting Women Domestic Workers 

Parichiti has worked with Women Domestic Workers since 2001 and we have conducted a research on commuting women domestic workers, the study was an endeavour towards understanding and documenting the status of women domestic workers in the city of Kolkata. It aimed at creating a profile of a woman domestic worker, the kind of constraints, and pressures experienced by her both within the family and outside, the ways in which she combats these deprivations and how she articulates what she considers to be her needs and rights.

The research was published by School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, India and sponsored by the Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung, Germany.

Parichiti, Commuting Women Domestic Workers in Kolkata A Study, School of Women’s Studies, Third Floor, Rabindra Bhavan, Jadvapur University, Kolkata 700032. India.

ISBN: 978-93-83660-20-9

2. A Room of Her Own: Women's Home Ownership and Inheritance

We also have an ongoing research project with Goldsmiths, University of London.

The aim of the research project is to look at the ways women understand home, ownership and inheritance.

Study on Women Domestic Workers and the Lockdown
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The Red and Gold Pen

An illustrated short story


Mithu is one of a vast number of women commuting to Kolkata for domestic work. She lives with her family outside the city, in a village close to Sonarpur, and she travels daily by local train.In the city, she juggles multiple part-time jobs, rushing to and between her three employers’ homes. The work (washing dishes, sweeping floors) is tiring, unregulated, and low-paid, but it provides an important source of income, helping Mithu to support her family and pay for her daughters’ education. As we travel with Mithu, from her own home to her employers’ homes and back again, we are offered glimpses of her daily life, trials and tribulations, and love for her family. We see how, for Mithu and many others like her, commuting brings additional challenges, complicating and compounding many of the issues facing domestic workers in India.

We also see how, for those doing it, there is often a profound belief in the power of education. It is this belief – and the hope of a better life for their children through education – which sits at the heart of The Red and Gold Pen

Read the story at the Edinburgh Research Archive ERA is a digital repository of original research produced at The University of Edinburgh. 
https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/37231


Read and download the story