Most trouble between Indian households and their domestic staff comes from the same five absences. None of them is expensive. This is what each one is, why it matters, how to tell in five minutes whether your household has it, and what putting it right involves.
1. Police verification, done, with the originals returned
What it is. A form at the local police station or on the city police website, with the worker's photo, an ID copy, her permanent address and a previous employer's phone number. The police check their records and, in most cities, return a stamped acknowledgement.
Why it matters. It is the only check that does not depend on the agency's word or the neighbour's. It also protects the worker: a verified record is what lets her prove, at the next house, that she has worked in your society for three years without a complaint.
How to check. Do you have the acknowledgement, or at least a copy of the filled form, for every person who works in the house? If the agency said "verified", ask to see what was filed.
What it costs. Nothing but an hour. What it must never cost the worker is her original documents. An ID copy is yours to keep; an original Aadhaar, voter card or passport is never to be held by an employer, an agency or a society office, whatever anyone says the rule is.
2. One written duty sheet, photographed on both phones
What it is. A page listing every task in one line each, with how often, next to the salary, the hours, the weekly off, the leave, the bonus festival and the raise date.
Why it matters. The "extra work" dispute is the one that ends most arrangements, and it exists only because the work was never written. A sheet ends it: if it is on the sheet, it is the job; if it is not, it is a new line with a new amount.
How to check. Can you show someone, right now, what your cook is paid for and what days she has off? If the answer is "it's understood", it is not.
What it costs. Twenty minutes. Pay for the roles themselves runs from ₹4,500 for cleaning alone to ₹8,000 for the full maid's sheet, ₹9,500 for a two-meal cook, ₹13,000 for an eight-hour nanny.
3. Fair pay, on a fixed date, with leave and the bonus
What it is. The going rate for your city and the role, paid on the same date every month, with two to four paid days a month for part-time staff, a weekly off for full-time, fifteen to thirty days a year for live-in, one month's salary as a bonus before the worker's main festival, and a raise of about ten percent a year.
Why it matters. Late salary and a missing bonus are the two reasons staff leave without notice, and they leave in the weeks before Diwali, when replacements are hardest to find. Fair pay is cheaper than a month without a cook.
How to check. When was the salary last paid, and was it the date you agreed? Did last year's bonus go out before the festival or after? Has there been a raise in the last eighteen months?
What it costs. For a part-time maid the gap between the below-market rate and the fair one is small in rupees and large in loyalty. For live-in staff, remember that ₹16,000 is the cash salary; food, a room with a door and a weekly off are on top, and an arrangement without them is not fair pay however high the number.
4. A keys, cash and valuables policy
What it is. A clear answer to four questions: who has a key, where cash for groceries is kept and how it is accounted, where jewellery and documents live, and what happens when something goes missing.
Why it matters. Not because workers steal; the honest ones vastly outnumber the rest, and the reviews on their profiles show it. Because the absence of a policy puts the honest worker under suspicion the first time a ring is mislaid, and an accusation without evidence ends a livelihood.
How to check. Is there a locked place for jewellery and documents that the worker does not need to open? Is grocery money handed over against a list and the bills kept? Does a spare key exist, and does the worker know where it is?
What it costs. A lockable cupboard or a small safe is ₹2,000 to ₹8,000. A notebook for grocery money costs nothing. The policy for a missing item is: look, ask without accusing, and if you truly believe there was theft, go to the police rather than withhold salary. Withholding wages is not a remedy and is not legal.
5. Medical cover, or at least a plan
What it is. What happens if the worker is injured in your house, falls ill for a month, or has a family emergency. At the least, a few paid sick days, the household's first-aid kit, and the knowledge that a cut from your kitchen knife is treated at your expense. At best, a low-cost health policy in the worker's name, which several insurers sell for a few thousand rupees a year, or enrolment in a state domestic workers' welfare board where one exists.
Why it matters. A worker who cannot afford to be ill comes to work ill, and a live-in worker with no cover is one accident from a crisis that lands on the household anyway.
How to check. Do you know what your worker would do if she broke a wrist tomorrow? Does she?
What it costs. A few paid sick days a year and a first-aid kit, which you should have regardless. A basic policy is optional and is the single most appreciated extra a household can give. For attendants and nannies on full-time rates of ₹15,000 and up, a policy is the norm among good employers.
Doing all five at once
A household that is starting fresh can have all five in place in the first week: the form filed at the station, the sheet written and photographed, the salary date set in the phone's calendar with the bonus and raise, the cupboard locked, the first-aid kit stocked. A household that has had the same cook for eight years and none of these can add them in the same week, and the cook will be relieved rather than offended, because the absences cost her more than they cost you.
The one to do first, always, is verification, because it protects both sides and because it is the only one that gets harder with time. The sheet comes second. The rest follow in whatever order the household can manage.
Where the essentials differ by role
Nanny. Add a written routine for the child and the names and numbers of the doctor, the school and two relatives. Add the rule about stepping out with the child.
Elderly or patient attendant. Add the medicine chart with times, what to log, and who to call for what. Anything involving injections, drips or wound care is a nurse's work and needs the nursing category, at its own rate. An attendant at ₹18,000 is trained for bed-ridden care, not clinical procedures.
Live-in. Add the room, the door, the weekly off out of the house, the phone, and the travel date for the annual trip home. A live-in arrangement without a day off is not an arrangement; it is the thing the welfare boards exist to stop.
Couple. Two sheets, one salary, and the same five essentials for each person.