BENGALURU: Middle-aged women make up the majority of the domestic workforce in the city, as per a sample survey released on ‘Domestic workers in Bengaluru city’ by Bengaluru University’s Sri Alampalli Venkataram Chair on Labour Research.
The chair conducted a survey of domestic labour between January to April 2014 and the report for the same was released by governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala on Friday.
According to the experts involved in conducting surveys and preparing the report, over 1,000 domestic workers across the city were interviewed for the purpose. “The city was divided into four parts and 250 domestic workers from each part were considered for the survey,” said Prof Y Narayana Chetty, director of the chair.
According to the survey, “A majority of women, who are domestic workers, take up the responsibility of running the family and taking care of children partly to supplement the income of the husband and partly to bear the responsibility of running the family if the husband happens to be a high-risk alcoholic or sick, or if the husband has abandoned his wife and children.
“It is in the very nature of the problem that middle-aged women bear the brunt of family responsibilities including looking after children and elders who may be sick anyway,” it stated.
However, the sample survey shows that 99.8 per cent of the workforce are women and a majority of them are migrant workers.
Less than one per cent are men and 95.7 per cent are married while 0.2 per cent are divorcees. Another issue revealed by the survey is that 36.9 per cent of domestic workers are illiterates.
The fact that they largely come from broken families and live on the border of starvation, disease and even death has been examined in the survey.
‘Help the poor’
Releasing the report, Governor Vajubhai Vala said, “The constitution itself provides provision for free and compulsory education. The lack of literacy is leading women to domestic work both in city and rural areas.” “Instead of going to the temple and putting money in a donation box, people should donate it to poor people. Serving the poor will directly reach god,” he added.
Legislative Council Chairman D H Shankara Murthy, vice-chancellor Bangalore University Dr B Thimme Gowda, registrar Prof K K Seethamma were present on the occasion.