Domestic help in India is considered one of the most denigrating and humiliating jobs without any social security or decent wages. Today, almost every household in India has domestic help for cleaning, washing or cooking. These people have usually travelled from rural areas in search of jobs to the towns and cities. Most are women and young teenagers who are trafficked into this kind of employment. This sector is totally unorganised with few or no laws regulating their employment conditions.
While they toil away with no fixed working hours, we forget that they are also human beings and they have a right to their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter and along with it have a right to equal protection by the laws of our land. These rights are given in our constitution but to implement it and make sure these disadvantaged people get their due benefits we need to strive to put into place legislation which is not just a dead letter but actually fulfils the constitutional mandate.
Shonali, a 20 year old from Sundarbans , West Bengal , joined work at the age of 17. She was brought by her uncle to the city to work and send back the money every month. She gets a small corner in the kitchen to sleep in. Has no clothes except the ones brought with her from her village. She cleans cooks and serves the 8 person, 7 bedroom two floored house on a measly monthly sum of six hundred rupees. If she falls ill, then she is given whatever medicine provided by the employer but is given no respite from work till she recovers.
There are many like her, many younger than her working in houses ten times bigger than their own, mistreated frequently, criticised and forced to work for over 15 hours in a day. Many are part time but a large number reside in the house in which they are employed as most of them have left their villages in search of work. Most of these people have huge families to support back in their village and send back almost all their earnings. For them life is a struggle and constant pressure to take care of their loved ones with no time to live for themselves.
Domestic workers are part of the growing informal sector that has no fixed hours of work or fixed wages. There is no security of tenure as a worker may come back from her holiday only to find that someone else has taken her place. She often does not get a weekly off or any paid holiday. The threat of sexual harassment is an ever-present one.
90% domestic workers in India are women, girls or children ranging from ages 12 to 75 and it is estimated that 25% are below the age of 14. Domestic workers take on the job due to unsteady domestic circumstances at their own households, e.g male and rural employment, sole breadwinner of the family, abusive or alcoholic husbands, etc. The overall claim to the reason of work is the adverse conditions of poverty and the failure of the government to eradicate or make the situation better.
But whatever may be the factors that lead these women to the job, it is the age-old patriarchal and societal systems in India that regard the work as menial and downgrade. As a result of which, it draws the poorest of remuneration. These workers have no benefits of work contracts, social security, and security of employment, wage raises, paid leave or medical facilities.
A substantial number of domestic workers, mainly young girls and women, are trafficked to cities from states like West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand. The source districts are some of the poorest in the country, inhabited by minorities, mainly scheduled tribes. Many of these girls and women are lured by agents in the villages with incentives of a good pay and life.
It is important for us to have an overview of the existing regulations and legal provision for domestic workers in our country so as to consider the drawbacks and ways to move forward.
The Karnataka government has paved the way by including domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act in 2004. Says Geeta Menon of the Karnataka Domestic Workers Rights Union, “All benefits, such as increment and bonus, elude them. There is no mechanism to address their issues. The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) new labour standard on domestic work offers an excellent opportunity not only to bring greater attention to the issue but also promote alliances of the major stakeholders already advocating for the protection of domestic workers,”
The Unorganised Sector Workers’ Social Security Act, passed by the Parliament in 2008, includes domestic workers. The Act has provisions for identity cards, registration facilities and other social security benefits, but there is no mention about regulation of work conditions or working hours which was urgently required. It thankfully reinforces other legislative provisions by stipulating that only a person above the age of 14 years can register themselves under the Act. The Act is yet to be fully implemented.
In fact domestic workers have been left out of the most important labour legislations such as the
· The Workman’s Compensation Act of 1923
· The Weekly Holiday Act of 1942
· The provision of Minimum Wages Act of 1948
· The Maternity Benefit Act of 1961
· The Personal Injury Act of 1963
· Gratuity Act of 1978
In July 2007, Shramajivee Mahila Samity and the Human Rights Law Network filed a petition in the Delhi High Court demanding police action against domestic placement agencies in Delhi. They submitted complaints from 159 domestic workers who had been cheated and abused by five agencies in the city. One of the most plaguing problems in the Capital is the unregulated mushrooming of such agencies with which people get in touch to employ domestic help. Normally the contracts are made between the prospective employer and the agency with no documentation including the domestic worker as a party which makes it difficult to regulate remuneration actually paid to these people.
During the court hearings, corrupt links between officials and agency owners became apparent. The court demanded that the state government collaborate with civil society to frame guidelines for regulating the agencies. But the state’s counsel, and especially the Department of Labour, has done nothing till now.
The government of Maharashtra has passed the Maharashtra Domestic Workers’ Welfare Board Act 2008 for the welfare of domestic workers in December 2008, but the financial provisions for it have yet to be passed.
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The Central Government is considering extending the benefits of the Centrally-sponsored health insurance scheme Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), besides the enforcement of minimum wages, to all domestic workers in the country.This is one of the recommendations made by a task force set up by the labour ministry. Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has said all these recommendations were being considered by the ministry. |
According to the 61st round of the NSSO survey, 2004-05, there are 4.75 million domestic workers in the country. The task force has defined them as employees who work in households for remuneration either in cash or kind through agencies or on their own, and are working on temporary or permanent, part-time or full-time basis. The definition, however, does not include people engaged in driving vehicles or occupations that keep them outside the household.
It is obvious that there is an urgent need for a legal provision at the national level. In fact many countries around the world already have well established systems for regulating the employment conditions of domestic workers.
In South Africa the Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker Sector law, which was promulgated in 2002, set minimum wages and conditions such as working hours, leave days and compulsory registration with the Department of Labour. It has made significant progress in securing rights for the domestic workers.
Domestic workers fighting for rights and recognition through binding international standards won a crucial first round victory at this year’s International Labour Conference at the ILO in Geneva. On June 4, 61 governments voted in favour of a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation, against 14 voting for a Recommendation only which is no doubt a major step forward.
Only recently the New York State Senate passed a bill for regulating work hours, wages, leave etc for domestic workers. The Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights bill creates guidelines for employers of housekeepers, nannies and other workers in an industry that is unregulated and without clearly defined work benefits.
Malaysia has very recently proposed reforms in its law for domestic workers, and legislation for the protection of migrant workers both local and domestic, since many workers migrate to Malaysia for domestic work.
One of the foremost ways to bringing significant change is to organize the domestic workers so as to be able to address these issues. States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have strong domestic worker unions and as a result a lot has been achieved in terms of their registration and formation of welfare boards. However many workers are unaware of any legislation made in their favour or the progress that organized unions can make for them.
One of the biggest problems is people’s mindset without which there can never be any real change. Domestic labour is given no respect in India. Hardly any value is attached to the work that is done inside the house by these people. The employers treat them with scant respect and so do most people in our country. Sadly there is no dignity given to manual labour.
Workers therefore have to be encouraged to form unions and associations. Many organizations working with them are doing their bit. But a strong effort has to be made at the national level by organizing domestic workers and campaigning effectively for their rights. As Nelson Mandela once said to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
