As per a 2017 study by the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are atleast 40 lakh domestic workers in the country.
Most part-time domestic workers work between 8 to 18 hours every day, while live-in helpers work for a minimum of 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Yet, their wages are at the mercy of their employers other basic facilities like basic health insurance, paid leaves, or other benefits are virtually unheard of.
A look closer to home
Take a look at the working conditions of the domestic help that comes to your place. How many leaves is she entitled to in a month? Maximum 3 or 4. Anything above that becomes an issue. Is she allowed any annual leaves, maybe for a week, once a year close to Diwali? Is she allowed off on festivals? Not really.
One might argue, 3-4 leaves a month is fine, but is it really?
Exclusion from most acts
Most workers, even in unorganised sectors- take for example people working in textile markets, get at least one day a week off and also get to take more leaves without the fear of job loss, but are our domestic helps accorded the same decency?
One might argue that this is an unorganised sector, but numerous acts like Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Wages Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act and the Minimum Wages Act are applicable for people working in the unorganised sector as well. Yet none of them are applicable to domestic workers.
Domestic workers part of just two acts
Only two laws in India consider domestic helps as workers, the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013.
However, the former is a social welfare scheme and the second aims at working women in general. Neither of the two helps in recognising domestic workers as workers with rights.
Recognition is the first, in fact, a pre-step for regulation. All that exists is a draft National Policy for domestic workers.
Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act, 2010
11 years ago, in 2010, the National Commission for Women drafted the Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act with an aim to shield domestic help against low wages, long work hours and abuse. However, the Act is yet to become a law.
In June 2011, India became a signatory to the ILO’s Convention 189. The convention mandates decent working conditions for domestic workers, India is yet to ratify it.
Private households cannot be encroached upon?
There have been arguments that private households cannot be clearly declared workplaces and thus regulation for domestic workers becomes an issue there. But this argument fails to hold valid when we look at the fact that the anti-sexual harassment law recognises private households as workplace.
More importantly, there exists a draft bill called Domestic Workers Regulation of Work and Social Security Bill, 2016 which presents a model for regulation of domestic work without involving the government or state into one’s household.
Domestic Workers Regulation of Work and Social Security Bill, 2016
The draft bill goes beyond putting the onus of welfare on government, it calls for a compulsory registration of the employer and the employee and mandates collection of a cess from the employer which will enable maintenance of a social security fund which can be accessed via an identity card.
This solves two issues: police verification, and security and documentation of identification data, thus empowering them as workers with rights.
India begins its first step
Earlier this week, the Centre launched its first ever All India Survey on Domestic Workers. Covering 742 districts, the survey will include all types of workers such as domestic help, cooks, drivers, house-keeping, tutors and watchmen.
With an aim to estimate the number of domestic workers, the survey will also provide the household estimate of live-in/ live-out domestic workers, an average number of domestic workers engaged by different types of households and will cover 150,000 households and a total of 6190 villages.
The result of the survey is expected in a year.
Need for unions
While the survey is surely a welcome step in the direction, it is not enough. The need is of a union, which empowers domestic workers to deal with issues with their employers and also helps them in setting the minimum wages and pay for their work.
A union is necessary because deciding the wages of a maid who provides different services to different households, is a complex calculation which cannot be regulated at the Centre level or even state level for that matter. Unions at small levels, but with some authority will be more accessible to uneducated domestic workers who face multiple issues on a regular basis with currently no one really helping them out.
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