CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers Welfare Trust has urged the state government to introduce a separate law to protect the rights of domestic workers, predominantly women. This was proposed during a state-level consultation meeting held along with School of Service Learning at Loyola College in Chennai on Thursday.
The trust highlighted that India is yet to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s Domestic Workers Convention No 189 which calls for safeguarding the rights of these workers. While stakeholders have been consistently urging the central government to sign the convention and enact a national law for domestic workers, they said Tamil Nadu could set an example by implementing a state-level legislation.
The DMK had promised in its manifesto to pressurise the central government to enact such a legislation. Trust members have also met with around 17 MPs who have pledged to raise the issue in the next parliament session and possibly introduce a private member bill, they said. A draft bill for the state was also released at the event.
Speakers said that a welfare board can’t function properly without independent funds. Considering this, they said the state government should set aside 1% of the property tax to the Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers Welfare Board and also sought to increase their pension to Rs 3,000 from Rs 1,000. Their other demands included considering homes as workplaces for domestic workers, protection from harassment and the effective implementation of POSH Act and right to housing in urban locations where they reside.
Speaking at the event, Ponkumar, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Construction Workers Welfare Board, said the board has sent a proposal to the government to increase the pension of construction workers to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,200. He added that most of the amount given to the construction workers through various schemes have been doubled after the DMK came to power.
Ezhilan N, MLA of Thousand Light Constituency, assured the trust members that he would help to take their demands to the law minister and labour minister. K Chandru, former judge of Madras high Court, M Joesphine Amala Valarmathi, chief functionary of the Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers Welfare Trust, and David Sundar Singh, panel advocate of State Human Rights Commission, were also present.