SINGAPORE: A family who decided to hire a 27-year-old helper from Mizoram did not ever think that the latter would behave suggestively towards the men at home.
In a tip-off to The Independent Singapore, the employer said that she found her helper behaving rather suggestively towards her husband. After every shower, the maid would insist on coming out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around her and walking through the house to her room to change. Despite her employer reminding her repeatedly not to do so as it was not an all-female household, the maid continued her behaviour.
The woman’s husband also said that he noticed the helper behaving strangely towards him. He added that the helper would carry his toddler and keep looking at him. While handing the child, the maid would also try to stand very close to him or in such a way that she was in his direct line of sight. The man said that once when he was watching TV, he did not realise the maid was standing extremely close to him until he turned his head and it touched her arm. “She was right behind me, very close”, he said to TISG.
The family, who wished to remain anonymous, said their maid also habitually walked into the room unannounced and without knocking. She always seemed to have a reason to open doors and barge in, especially when her employer’s husband changed his clothes. Exasperated, the woman said she had repeatedly reminded the maid of this and even resorted to scolding her once as she was so frustrated.
The helper, a 27-year-old from Mizoram, India, was a single parent with two small children. She left her children in her own mother’s care for her to come abroad and work. The family felt that this could be one of the reasons why she might have been behaving suggestively towards the men in the family.
The employer said her maid was no different towards her father, where the helper would follow the older man around even when told not to. The woman told TISG that her father enjoyed spending quality time with his grandchildren (her two daughters) and would often take them on short walks. Despite his insistence that he would take the children nearby alone as he could manage, the helper always wanted to walk with them. “I have to repeatedly tell her to sit with the rest of us while my father watches the kids. He can manage them himself, yet she (the maid)Â will try to go also”, the woman said.
After about two months of this behaviour, the family seemed rather annoyed with the situation and decided to send her back to the agency and get a replacement helper. Coincidentally, when her affections were not returned, the maid, too, said that she wanted to stop working for them. /TISG