One of the more contentious issues for domestic workers in India is the question of workplace safety. A landmark bill in 2010 tackling sexual harassment in the workplace was criticized for omitting domestic workers. The argument of its framers was that it would be difficult to police private homes.

“The task force from the Ministry of Labor is looking into the amendment to the sexual harassment bill,” Sister Jeanne said. “If the home is defined as a private space, then the employer should not take on an outsider as a worker. It starts with the name — domestic worker — it’s an identity. It allows workers to see the dignity of their work, to make comparisons with air hostesses, or to see the value of the work they do, whether this is child care or care for the aged.”

Reiko Tsushima, senior specialist on gender equality and female worker issues at the International Labor Organization, offers a nuanced perspective. “Domestic work has often been considered an extension of women’s work, and there needs to be a consensus that the home is also a workplace,” she said. If all Indian states accept the Labor Ministry recommendation that domestic workers be covered under the Minimum Wage Act across the country, said Ms. Tsushima, this would underline that the home is a workplace.

“It has been a very exciting time in the last five years,” she said. “The hope is that domestic workers will have ground to stand on with the new policy and legislative developments, and that the idea that they are entitled to rights will take hold. A significant part of policy and legislative focus up to now has been on social protection/welfare, but it’s shifting towards rights and regulating working conditions.”

One of the strongest voices among domestic workers is that of Baby Haldar, whose best-selling memoir, “A Life Less Ordinary,” was published in 2002.

Ms. Haldar, 37, has been fine-tuning a sequel and continues to work as a maid in the house of a professor she considers a mentor and friend.

“There needs to be a change on the ground,” she said. “I am treated with respect, but so many other women are not. The courts and the government pass many, many laws. What we really need is an acknowledgement that the work we do in a household is important.”