‘Don’t cook, clean in India’: Australian woman sparks debate over domestic help, work culture
An Australian woman living in India has sparked a debate online after she shared her observations on the widespread reliance on domestic workers in Indian households—something she attributes to a lack of work-life balance and the availability of inexpensive labour.
Bree Steele, a podcast producer who has been living in India since 2023, posted a video on Instagram detailing how daily life in India contrasts with that in the West.
In the video, she said, “I don’t cook or clean in India. Chores? I don’t know them.
“Most middle class to wealthy households in India have house help. Most people have someone who does their cleaning, maybe their washing and cooking.”
This, she said, is in stark contrast to Western countries where most people juggle full-time jobs and household chores without outside help.
“A friend of mine here told me it is just not feasible to do all the cleaning and cooking on your own. I was like, that is what we do in the west. We do everything with full-time jobs,” Steele said.
However, she acknowledged that Indian professionals work longer hours, saying she has observed her friends in India get work calls as late as 9:30 pm.
“There is no real work-life balance here. The expectation on corporate workers are just so high that if you are single, of course you do not have time to do your own cooking and cleaning, and for better or worse, labour is cheap in India, so it makes sense that people rely on house help.”
Steele ended the video by admitting that she was “ashamed” at how much she enjoyed the convenience of not having to cook or clean.
Watch it here:
Her comments sparked a conversation about social norms, economic inequality, and work culture in India.
One user commented, “This can only happen in a country with massive income inequality, high levels of poverty, high population and poor regulation.” Another pointed out that people in the west often rely on ready-to-eat meals rather than cooking from scratch.
A user who had lived both in India and abroad added, “I grew up in India with house help and later moved to the west. Despite doing all my chores here, I have more time for hobbies and health. In India, even with help, I lived a tired, unhealthy life.”
India