No entry: domestic helps, service providers, drivers, luggage, pets

If the story of Lokkhi, the teenaged girl, beaten up by her employers sparked rage, separate lifts for residents and their staff shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Most plush multi-storied housing complexes in Gurgaon have service lifts with notices specifying that they are meant for ‘domestic helps, drivers, pets and service providers. For ‘residents and guests’, the lifts are separate to avoid ‘inconvenience’.

When asked, residents as well as the heads of welfare associations in the apartment blocks cited reasons varying from hygiene to safety.

“Helps work on different floors. It becomes inconvenient to share the lift with them if it has to stop on every floor. Though there is no notice put up outside the lifts, of the six in our building, there are two for maids and drivers. Not everyone likes pets, so it is only fair to have separate lifts for them,” said Dr Naveen Sutleja of Rakshak Apartments in South City-I.

N R Paheja, president, RWA, Heights in South City I: “We have kept the lifts separate to maintain hygiene. Helps do not keep themselves clean. Either their clothes are dirty or they have body odour which makes it uncomfortable for residents and visitors.”

When asked which lift a maid accompanying a child could use, Paheja said, “Employers ensure the ‘maid’ keeps herself clean so there is no issue if they take the same lift as residents.”

Others had better reasons to justify the ‘segregation’. RWA president of Malibu Condominium, Ratan Katwal explained it was simply a security measure. He had an even better excuse. “Electricity supply is erratic here. In case of a power cut, one could be stuck in the lift for 10-15 minutes. If a resident or a visitor gets stuck in the lift with a servant or a driver, he/she might feel awkward. However, if the driver or a servant is accompanied by a resident or a visitor, we have no objection.”

Anand Chaturvedi, former president of Regency Park in DLF-IV, added, “We have 22 storeys and 170 flats. However, we have only three lifts. One is a service lift for goods, maids, drivers and pets. The other two are reserved for our residents and their guests. If the ‘servants’ are allowed to use all the lifts, imagine the rush during school and office hours. We have made segregation mandatory to avoid inconvenience and misuse of the limited number of lifts in our complex.”

Chaturvedi said illiterate helps press the emergency button which jams the lift till it is manually unlocked by the guards. To avoid such situations, the lifts are kept separate.

“As for pets, some children are scared of dogs so we thought it best to put them in separate lifts,” added Chaturvedi.

A resident of South City I said on condition of anonymity, “I don’t like it if a domestic help uses the same lift as me or my children. I feel we do need separate lifts.”

When asked how could she let the same person work at her home, she said, “It’s a bigger space and we don’t brush against them.”

About educating domestic helps to use lifts, Prussia Mathur of DLF Phase 5 was dismissive. “No matter how much they earn, they just won’t change their ways. Teaching them will make no difference”

A B Lall, a resident of Hamilton Court said, “We encourage the use of service lifts for servants, supply staff, courier people, pets and luggage movement. Women and children who use the lift alone might feel unsafe with strangers. There are six towers, with 22 floors in each. Each has two resident or visitor’s lifts and a service lift.”

Inder Bhandari, a resident of Ivory towers in South City I said, “The lack of training and civic sense leads to the misuse of any facility. I do not like segregation, however. But it is necessary to use separate lifts for better living conditions. Obscene language or graffiti in lifts leaves a bad impression on a visitor or a child.”