With a surge in student and white-collar population, Pune has attracted migrant labourers to meet the demand for domestic work. This paper attempts to understand the lives of part-time female domestic workers in the Viman Nagar neighbourhood. It explores the current market conditions of domestic work by examining the wage trends and perceived negotiating power among respondents. By utilising the time-use surveys, it examines the time distribution of a female domestic worker’s day, and the resultant time poverty experienced due to the multiple shifts of domestic work. Delineating these two dimensions, this paper analyses the power relations that underpin interactions of the private and public realms within the informal sector. It further attempts to critique the gendered consequences of being a migrant domestic worker in a highly unregulated market space.
