They have no rights or any fairness in the way they are treated, nor are there any rules to secure their interests. This absence of any legal protection has led to widespread exploitation of domestic workers, who are often equated to slaves in the urban world.
Finally waking up to the demands from various quarters, the Centre is now in the process of framing a National Policy for Domestic Workers, that will soon be discussed by the Union Cabinet. “Domestic workers are subjected to exploitation and therefore the welfare and protection of domestic labour force is very important,” Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told media in Delhi on Sunday. “The policy framework is on par with the standards of the International Labour Organisation. India has adopted the ILO convention on domestic workers and therefore we have to make a policy for this segment of the society,” he added. Only such a policy with a comprehensive central legislation, specifically designed to meet the working condition of the domestic workers, can ensure protection to these workers, pointed out E Deepa, research scholar, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), whose primary research is on the ‘changing nature of domestic workers’.
Apart from minimum wage, there are issues, including compulsory weekly off, reasonable notice period on termination, maternity and sick leave, she added.
“Recently, a few states like Kerala took the initiative to include domestic workers under the Minimum Wage Act, but in the absence of a Central legislation capable of incorporating all domestic workers, none of these State level measures can really benefit the workers,” Deepa added.
There are many technical issued involved in this. For instance, a household is still not legally considered as a workplace. “It took continued intervention from activists and domestic workers associations for households to be brought under the definition of workplace under the Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act,” she noted. This, however, is not the first attempt to streamline the sector. There were efforts in the past to bring out a draft bill titled ‘Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act, 2010’ by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Considering the practical difficulties in implementing hourly minimum wage, the draft bill proposed three different kinds of minimum wages based on the nature of work - minimum time rate, minimum piece rate and minimum guaranteed. Besides these, the bill also sought to recognise overtime work.
This had enthused many activists, who were hopeful that there would be progress after the commission’s intervention. “But the bill still remains as a draft though years have gone by. The government is not keen in making it as an Act,” Deepa charged.
A advisory committee appointed by the State government in 2009 had made recommendations in fixing minimum wage for these workers. The committee opined that Rs 25-30 would be fair minimum wage, and fixed dearness allowance at Rs 172 per month. But these recommendations have are still not been implemented.
Unlike earlier times when only the rich were hiring domestic workers, even middle class families engage workers these days. Hence, extending maternity and retirement benefits would put the burden on these families, say activists, asking the authorities to step in.
Other than being hired through agencies, no agreement or contract is ever executed to give the job a legal status. According to activists, spreading awareness among both employers and workers is the need of the hour.