The Supreme Court, in the Ajay Malik (2025) case, has underlined the urgency for a legal framework to protect and regulate domestic workers’ rights. The judgement stated, “Any avenue for employment—domestic help—being opened to marginalised women merit celebration” and that the legal gaps must be plugged to ensure the rights of this indispensable workforce for Indian households.
Rapid urbanisation, migration, shifting family dynamics and double-income middle class households have led to the surge in domestic work as ‘employment’ for women. As reported in a Periodic Labour Force Survey in 2023-24, approximately 11 percent of employed women were working as domestic workers in urban areas, reflecting the gendered and urban character of this sector. This outlines the need for ensuring effective social protection for the women working in this sector. The judgement reflects factual considerations that need to be aligned with the emerging legal standards and ongoing policy efforts for gender equity and labour rights.
An International Labour Organization report published in 2023 estimated that 75.6 million people were engaged as ‘domestic workers’ around the world, constituting 4.5 percent of the workforce, with the Asia-Pacific region having the highest proportion. Labour standards such as ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (C189) has triggered an international response to develop industrial legality (converting good practices into law), which the Ajay Malik judgement takes note of. C189 recognises that the rights of domestic workers are not only labour rights, but human rights too, and provides definitional clarity on domestic work and domestic worker in employment relations.
The convention provides provisions such as a formal written employment contract, social security, right to privacy, special sensitivity to migrant domestic workers, provision for national helpline service, and working hours to ensure decent terms of employment while addressing violence and harassment. Another 2023 ILO study reviewing 108 countries on legal protection for domestic workers revealed that 95 countries—Italy, South Africa, Uruguay, and the Philippines among them—legally recognised the identity and rights of domestic workers.
In the Ajay Malik judgement, the court also recorded that since 1959, seven bills relating to domestic workers’ rights and their service conditions were initiated, but none could become a law, reflecting the complexity of the situation. Legal protection requires a balance between labour market flexibility and workers’ rights.
The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 (now part of the Code on Social Security, 2020) has been ensuring social security rights for all unorganised workers, with recognition of domestic workers as ‘wage workers’ and households employing them as ‘employers’.
Around 12 states have already brought legal minimum wage rates and welfare boards for domestic workers, and have also identified work categories and their applicable rates. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal have constituted welfare boards that provide schemes for contingencies like health insurance, pensions and maternity benefits.
Achieving the goal of legislative intervention aligned to C189 requires acknowledging labour rights as fundamental human rights. Chile, for one, has recognised legal protection, community awareness and societal response as integral elements of the legal framework. This case is interesting as it uses ‘symbolic enforcement’, wherein a threat of inspection is issued to households that are habitual and severe violators. Ireland also follows such a community approach in enforcement. Since ‘household’ cannot be treated as ‘industries’ or establishments (unit of labour enforcement), inspection remains a challenge.
Since domestic worker recruitment is only network-based, reliant upon social connectedness, any legal framework needs to be sensitive to this aspect. Here, the role of resident welfare associations and private maintenance agencies can play significant roles as first units for enforcement. They already operate a digital system for police verification, duty management and worker database for residents, which can be leveraged to ensure compliance. Identity cards issued for domestic workers can serve as a de facto registration mechanism that can be shared with the labour department. RWAs can be entrusted to share cases of habitual and gross violations, and can nudge erring employers into following fair practices. Labour departments may hold regular outreach camps within these societies.
Certain steps can be taken keeping in mind flexibility, household privacy and non-intrusive enforcement. For example, sensitisation campaigns must be initiated to educate domestic workers about their rights. Best practices like mandatory registration, formal employment contracts, minimum wages, employer cess for social security contribution, journey allowance (for migrant workers), ban on hiring unregistered workers, and medical aid can be consolidated into a clear set of actionable guidelines.
Encouragingly, many of these enabling provisions are already embedded in the labour codes that lay the legal framework for extending protections to the unorganised sector. What remains is to build upon this momentum to properly protect the rights of domestic workers.
Ellina Samantroy | Coordinator, Centre for Gender and Labour, V V Giri National Labour Institute
Rohit Mani Tiwari | Labour commissioner, Thiruvanathapuram
(Views are personal)