“Gate Bandh:” Investigating Worsening Conditions of Ashoka’s Housekeeping Workers
- Antara Kulkarni and Nysa Sanghvi
- 7 hours ago
- 12 min read
The Edict interviewed the housekeeping staff on campus for eight months and reports on the disturbing working conditions, lack of transparency in issuing warning letters and arbitrary firings.
On 4th November 2024, over a 100 housekeeping staff, along with student representatives from Democracy Collective (DEMCOL) and United Student Front (USF) gathered in the basement of Academic Block 1 (AC-01) to address the gate bandh of Samay Julana* a male housekeeping supervisor following an accusation of misbehaviour by Neha Talwar*, a female supervisor.
Gate Bandh (Gate Closed) is a term used for a scenario wherein a worker is temporarily barred from entering the Ashoka campus from anywhere between one day to potentially several weeks, or even months, citing a disciplinary breach. Housekeeping and Dining workers are usually handed a warning letter before their Gate Bandh, but issuing such a letter does not always lead to such disciplinary action. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Gate Bandh has eventually led to dining team workers losing their jobs over the years.
Julana claimed a few female workers left campus 5-10 minutes before the end of their shift on 30th October, 2024 (Choti Diwali), after which one of the workers was called to the AC-01 basement (Quess office) by their supervisor, Talwar. Julana, in response, asked her to let them go as it was a festive occasion. The conversation eventually led to a heated argument between them. Talwar raised a written complaint against Julana* to the senior management on the same day.
Talwar alleged that Julana verbally abused her during the argument calling her “Besharam” (Shameless) in front of four supervisors and Manish Khatri, Quess Facilities Manager. She claims to have accused him of verbal misbehaviour and abuse in the written complaint, but had not filed a Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) complaint. However, The Edict accessed a WhatsApp chat where Khatri informed Julana* that a POSH complaint was lodged against him.
Julana was barred from entering the campus for a few days after the POSH complaint was lodged. He returned to work after the basement demonstration, but his area of jurisdiction was subjected to an unusual number of rounds by seniors, he alleges. He finally “succumbed to admin pressure” and resigned on 19th November, 2024. The “2023 employee of the year” amongst Quess supervisors, Julana, was not allowed to enter campus for the last five days of his tenure that ended on 30th November.
Talwar, on the other hand, was transferred to Ashoka’s North campus after the altercation. She left Ashoka earlier this month after receiving a better job offer.
The Edict previously reported that a female housekeeping worker had filed a sexual harassment case against Khatri. But unlike Julana, no such action was taken against him, and he continues to work at Ashoka.
Housekeeping employees in the meeting viewed Julana* as a worker-friendly supervisor and were frustrated to find out that he was not allowed to present his side. Others came forward against Talwar* sharing instances of facing verbal abuse and inappropriate comments from her. Once the workers realised the strength in numbers, the meeting quickly turned into a forum for workers to discuss their worsening working conditions and grievances against their supervisors, Khatri and Kamaldeep Singh, Assistant Director Campus Operations (then Senior Manager of Administration), who were also in attendance.
In the meeting, Pranjal Sinha* alleged that, once her uniform chunni (sardine) was unpinned during working hours and Talwar allegedly remarked “... look at how her dirty breasts are showing.”
Housekeeping workers who spoke at the meeting and were subsequently interviewed by The Edict mentioned instances of verbal harassment by supervisors and managers, lack of compensation for cleaning multiple floors and abrupt issuance of warning letters if they raised concerns against their seniors to the Ashoka administration.
Disturbing working conditions
Ashoka University hires housekeeping staff through a third-party business provider— Ajit Issac’s Quess Corp Limited, the largest staffing services company and private-sector employer in India.
It recently demerged into three separate independent identities: Quess Corp Ltd., Digitide Solutions Ltd, and Bluespring Enterprises Ltd, all still under the same parent company.
Although the workers' date of joining remains the same and their benefits continue to exist, they were transferred to Bluspring Enterprising Ltd. effective 1st April this year. For the purpose of this article, The Edict will refer to Quess as Ashoka’s third-party housekeeping employer.
Issac, who is the Chairman of Quess, is also a distinguished founder of Ashoka and donated a grant to set up the Isaac Centre for Public Policy. He also serves on the centre’s advisory board.
Over 20 Quess workers on campus told The Edict that they are overworked. Many Residence Hall workers often substitute for other janitors who are on leave, along with cleaning their assigned floor. Workers who work on the weekends also clean multiple floors because many assigned workers get their weekly off then.
In an interview with The Edict last year, Anu Chaudhary, Former Assistant Manager of Housekeeping, confirmed that a random set of workers are assigned to a floor for the day if the original assignee is on leave. As they are not working extra hours, workers are not “paid” for this additional work. However, all workers confirmed that they were compensated if they worked overtime during student move-ins, events, and RH deep cleaning days.
Yet, many workers feel that the extra work is forced upon them through verbal threats from supervisors if they refuse to undertake it. “We already have a lot of work on our floors. On top of it they tell us to not leave before we complete the extra work designated to us,” said a worker, Sushmila Devi*.
Housekeeping staff being made to clean additional non-designated floors is not a new issue. In 2019, The Edict reported this issue and interviews with senior housekeeping workers for this piece suggest the practice of forced extra-shifts began before 2019.
Workers assigned to female residence halls further pointed out that some of their colleagues are also alternating shifts at Singh’s house, oftentimes watching his kids during their working hours.
They receive no additional pay for their labour.
Their stress is further punctuated by the fact that the conditions of work are increasingly disturbing: “ [The students] throw pads in the shower rather than the dustbin,” said Rushali Mathwar* a RH-2 worker. She adds that sometimes students are also very clumsy while disposing of menstrual cups, "spilling blood on the toilet seats and floor".
Workers are also forced to clean vomit off the floor and sink, with minimal equipment, like gloves. In certain RHs, they even complained about finding faeces on the floor of the shower and toilet stalls. Mathwar* rarely complains to her supervisors about her working conditions.
If a worker wants to raise any large issue, their supervisor is the first official point of contact. When the supervisor is either not available or unhelpful, they can contact Khatri. A majority of the housekeeping staff, The Edict talked to, alleged that the channel lapses more often than not. “We move in circles between the supervisor and managers for solutions. [...] Sometimes Khatri takes months to even consider our problems,” says Rajim Malik*.
Unable to address their grievances with Khatri, many workers reach out to students and other members of the administration for help. Laila Soyla* alleges that Khatri targets workers who escalate interpersonal issues with employees further up in the hierarchy of Ashoka’s operations office. “He has forced the superiors [supervisors] to keep an eye on them. [...] Then they will give them work on one or two [more] floors,” she claimed.
In their conversations with The Edict, many workers also claimed that warning letters raised by Khatri and signed by Singh have been issued against them for activities such as taking breaks together, slight delay to work after a 30-minute lunch break, or delay in updating the hourly washroom cleaning checklist. A few workers also alleged that the issuance of abrupt warning letters have increased since the meeting in November.
Singh, however, claims that warning letters are issued sparingly and only for repeat offences, with employees allowed to respond to them.
Chaudhary claims that staff members are issued warning letters only if “ . . . [they are] repeating the same mistakes again and again.” She added that three warning letters within 90 days could lead to termination, but their main purpose is to “scare the workers” into doing their job, adds Singh.
Workers, however, describe a far harsher reality, citing previous examples of warning letters being issued arbitrarily— often, they allege, as ‘punishment’ for filing complaints about their mistreatment. Many recounted instances where they were issued warning letters followed by a Gate Bandh.
“If I put my name in the complaint [that I have], then they will call me down [Quess office at the basement of the admin block] and hand me my warning letter,” said *Divyam Kaushik. Nowadays, he avoids raising his issues due to the fear of a warning letter.
The workers hoped that such issues would improve after the November basement meeting; they would be given space to allow them to air their grievances. But their aspirations were a short-lived reality, says Rohit Chakrabarthy* a worker present at the meeting.
He said, “After attending the meeting, I received a warning letter for updating the hourly washroom cleaning checklist an hour earlier than necessary.“ Notably, he claims to have never received a warning letter in his 5+ years at Ashoka before the meeting.
Leave policies and Cost-Cutting
Every year, Quess workers are allocated 14 Casual Leave (CL/EL), 18 Privileged/Paid Leaves (PLs), and a weekly day off. PLs apply yearly, and transferable across months, and the worker can encash them based on the remaining PLs at year-end. CLs, on the other hand, are distributed monthly (1.1/month), and are not transferable and encashable. A worker can take a maximum of two CLs in a month in the case of an “emergency”.
Housekeeping staff members interviewed by The Edict feel a lack of trust between Khatri, the supervisors and the workers. This, along with the “cost-cutting” approach of Singh and Khatri, has made the leave policies extremely difficult to navigate, they believe. Workers have recently been facing logistical issues applying for monthly CLs. They alleged that the administration often shrugs their leave applications off as “false excuses”.
Jayesh Sahiya*, a Quess representative working at Ashoka, disagrees with the workers' claims and calls them “exaggerated”. He alleges to have approved CLs and PLs pertaining to reasons like, “going to watch a movie, spending time with family etc.”, but his only condition is that “ workers get the job done”.
Sahiya, however, accepts that if a worker is taking a “medical leave (under CL or PL) they need to show medical bills.” Workers have previously used the term medical condition as an excuse for pretty much anything, prompting us to be stricter, he adds.
Sohan Jogi*, an RH worker, however, disagrees with this approach because most workers try to recover from illness at home. According to him, “going to a private hospital in Sonipat for even a fever would lead to the doctors admitting you for a few days”. In the process of acquiring a medical bill, a sick worker would also have to end up applying for Employee State’s Insurance (ESI) to cover their hospital costs.
The Edict accessed all the PL and CL approval slips from April 1st-April 12th, 2025 and found 23 leaves were issued mainly for personal reasons, medical issues, and temple visits. Till now, around 2 leaves/per day have been approved for April on average. Quess has 230+ Staff members employed at Ashoka.
Sahiya is satisfied with the number of leaves granted this month. “It’s important to consider that 18-20 (10%) workers are on leave on any given day. If everyone will take leaves, who will work otherwise,” he says.
Jogi claims that a new rule brought by the admin regarding PLs: “The PL policy restricts their use for leaves lasting three or more days. If a worker takes leave for only two days, one day may be classified as CL, but the remaining days get deducted from their salary as unpaid leave.”
Sahiya denied the existence of such a policy. He clarified that workers are permitted to use a maximum of two CLs in a month in the case of an “emergency”.
Citing an example from December last year where an employee was granted 15 days of PL for their child's marriage, he says that, "we have even approved the PL of a worker exhausted all of it at once”. At Least four other workers have, however, separately raised the same concerns as Jogi to The Edict.
The change in the policy for gate passes is also causing problems. Workers can now only issue a Gate Pass in case of emergency (mostly medical).
Shamila Shukla* is an RH worker whose husband is suffering from a serious health ailment. Along with her husband, she has to take care of her small children. “Before, I used to take a gate pass for a few hours in emergency situations to cater to my family and get back to work [...], but now the admin is so non-cooperative that I don’t even ask for a gate pass”.
Singh states this policy was introduced last year because a lot of workers were misusing it for random purposes.
Recently, the Quess team at Ashoka has also introduced a new rule about National Holidays. Before the academic year 24-25, most housekeeping workers volunteered to work on Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi Jayanti and received double payment (paid leave amount + volunteering money).
However, Ms. Choudhary explained, “the administration has introduced a new system where staff are divided into three groups, each assigned to work one holiday.” This change has reduced the number of workers per national holiday by two-thirds, significantly reducing the beneficiaries of the double payment policy. This also means a housekeeping employee working on a national holiday is highly likely to work three times what they would have done previously.
Stagnant salaries have also been a huge concern among the workers. Housekeeping employees receive around Rs. 12,000-15,500/ month on average based on their seniority. Sahiya* clarifies that the workers’ salary is borne by Ashoka University. They pay the money to Quess, who charge a percentage of the money as a “management fee”, following which the worker is paid their CTC.
Their salary only increases by a few hundred rupees once/twice every year when the Haryana government increases the minimum wages of the worker. Ashoka increases its house rent allowance to workers by a minimal amount a few times every year. This will remain the same until Ashoka renews/updates the housekeeping contract in 2027. Sahiya* says that till then, the salary of workers can only be increased if Ashoka wants to “tops-up” their salary.
Akrit Munjal*, who has been employed at Ashoka since 2017, has only had a Rs. 2,500 (amount changed to protect his identity) hike in his salary. He says, “The mess caterers and administration acknowledged inflation and increased mess breakfast prices from Rs. 50 and Rs. 68 in 2023. They should consider that inflation exists for us as well while deciding our salary”.
The valuation of the workers' salary can be better understood by comparing it to the salary and job description of the Resident Assistants (RAs) at Ashoka. The university hired 80+ full-time students last year for its popular RAship program. Their primary job is to respond to the personal needs of the 40-70 residents of the RAs floor. The university pays 75+ RAs Rs. 13,000-Rs. 14,000/month, and 7 RA mentors Rs. 17,000/month. An amount that equals and sometimes exceeds the monthly salary of the housekeeping workers.
A large-scale issue regarding the lack of ESI approval has also been omnipresent amongst the workers. In the basement meeting, the administration and Quess members claimed that workers are “faking” their sickness, as a justification for not approving their ESI applications. This is despite workers claiming to have provided a stamped doctor’s note to verify the illness.
If someone covered under ESI is sick, they can avail treatment in a few selected hospitals and will be reimbursed by the hospital through the ESI fund. Housekeeping workers' salary is below the Gross Salary of Rs. 20,000, and thus they are eligible for ESI. Around Rs. 50-200 is deducted from their monthly salary towards ESI.
Jogi announced in the meeting, “I have been suffering from diabetes for the last 3 years [...] I used to take leave from the hospital. [The admin] used to say I was lying [...] They didn’t believe me.” He told The Edict that for insurance approval, Quess admin, particularly Khatri, needs to forward the workers' ESI request to the ESI office within a month.
“Although I have all the proper documents [...] In my previous ESI request instead of ‘M-O-T-H-E-R’, I had written ‘O-T-H-E-R’ and because of that one mistake, my ESI has not been approved for two years.” Jogi claimed.
“When I went to the ESI office they told me to delete my old reference number and create a new ESI request which they will approve,” Jogi recounts. But even after creating a new request, he reports a delay on Quess’s end in taking it forward. Due to the hold-ups, he had to submit another application to the Quess HR and received an email about his query being forwarded earlier this month. He is hopeful that the ESI for his mother will finally be approved and will cover the expenses of his mother's new medical treatment.
The Edict reached out to Singh and Khatri for an interview regarding the allegations made against them. Singh initially agreed to an interview, and Khatri consented to be interviewed only in Singh’s presence. Despite daily follow-up for two weeks from The Edict, Singh could not find time for an interview.
To address these problems, the existence of a Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) is crucial. Professor Bittu, Associate Professor of Psychology and Biology, noted that the obfuscation of grievance redressal stems from the contractualisation of services, which denies workers direct recognition by the university.
Negotiations around the establishment of a workers' GRC have taken place between the administration, AUSG, DEMCOL, and concerned students since at least 2021. In November that year, students had staged sit-in protests after 35 housekeeping workers were informed that coerced into transfers to other Quess sites in Jaipur and Gurugram.
The protest was followed by multiple meetings between the students, faculty members, and the administration during which late Rajesh Garodia (then Pro-Vice Chancellor [Pro-VC], operations) informed that the university is in the process of setting up a GRC for workers' issues.
While initiatives like the Workers Samadhan Fund (WSF) and the Workers Welfare Committee (WWC) have sometimes been able to ease urgent liquidity constraints (upper limit of Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5000-6000 respectively), the long-standing demand for a GRC is not met. AUSG representatives have been advocating for the same for years through presidential debates, political party manifestos, and student protests, only to be faced with administrative silence for some time.
The Edict tried to set up an interview with the Quess HR and Compliance team through Singh. In a statement to The Edict, they said that, “We will not interact with students/media directly and any request needs through the Ashoka admin. Post which Quess HR will reply.”
Following this, we sent a list of questions to Quess HR through Singh. We will update this report as and when we receive a response from them.
*Pseudonyms have been provided to these individuals to preserve their anonymity.
(Edited by Aditya Anurag Roy)