Festival Bonuses for Domestic Help: What's Normal in Hyderabad
Nobody tells you the rule because there is not one. Festival bonuses for domestic staff in India are convention, not law, and conventions are exactly the things that are hard to learn when you are new to a city.
Here is what is actually normal in Hyderabad.
The short answer
Roughly one month's salary per year, split across the festivals you observe. In Hyderabad that usually means Diwali as the main one, with Sankranti also significant — it is the bigger festival for a lot of Telugu households, and many people split between the two rather than giving everything at Diwali.
For a cook on ₹6,000 a month, that is ₹6,000 across the year: perhaps ₹4,000 at Diwali and ₹2,000 at Sankranti, or a single ₹6,000 at whichever your household treats as the main one.
What varies
Length of service. Someone in their first three months typically gets a token amount rather than a full month. Someone who has been with you three years often gets more than one month.
How many houses they work. A cook holding four houses receives four bonuses. This is worth knowing, because it means your bonus is not their whole festival income and you are not solely responsible for it.
Your neighbourhood. As with salaries, the Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills belt runs well above the corridor, and the corridor runs above the old-city side.
Beyond cash
Sweets and new clothes are conventional alongside the cash, particularly at Diwali, and they are genuinely appreciated rather than being a substitute. A saree or a shirt-piece plus a box of sweets plus the cash is the standard shape.
Budget it monthly rather than annually. Setting aside about eight per cent of the salary each month means the bonus is already funded when the festival arrives, and you never have the conversation where you are deciding the amount based on what happens to be in your account that week.
When to give it
Before the festival, not after — the point is that it funds the celebration. A week ahead of Diwali is normal, and giving it on the day itself is late.
The awkwardness, addressed
Two things make this uncomfortable for people new to it: not knowing the number, and the asymmetry of the conversation.
On the number: ask a neighbour who has lived in the building longer. It is a completely normal question and everyone has had to ask it once. Building WhatsApp groups often settle on a rough consensus, which is useful precisely because it removes the negotiation.
On the asymmetry: it is less awkward if it is predictable. Saying "I do Diwali and Sankranti, roughly a month split between them" when you agree the job removes an annual conversation entirely.
Where this shows up in the maths
This is one of the costs that never appears in a quoted salary and materially changes what a cook costs. A ₹6,000-a-month cook is really ₹6,500 a month once the bonus is amortised, before groceries and before the days nobody comes.
We include it in the per-area cook cost tables, because leaving it out is how people end up surprised by their own budget.
Fresh, chef-cooked lunches delivered daily across Hyderabad — from ₹90 a meal, no delivery fees.
See the full cost comparisonShort version
About a month's salary a year, split across Diwali and Sankranti, given before the festival, alongside sweets and clothes. Set aside eight per cent monthly and agree the shape when you agree the job.
