Domestic workers have
no security of tenure, little bargaining power over wages, no
regulation of working hours or entitlement to paid leave, laments Anuja
Agrawal
There is no prize for guessing what two middle class women talk about
whenever they meet. Invariably maids and 'servants' saturate their
conversation. It will be no exaggeration to say that the middle class
can barely imagine life without domestic workers.
But is this educated and self-righteous middle class prepared to give
them their due? The home may be a symbol of nurturing and security, but
it can be an extremely exploitative site of work. With no checks and
controls in place, the domestic workers have no security of tenure,
little bargaining power over wages, no regulation of working hours or
entitlement to paid leave. In addressing these and many more issues,
the Domestic Workers (Regulation of Employment, Conditions of Work,
Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2008, is like a ray of hope for
domestic workers.
The processes of extremely uneven development have rendered migration
for work in the urban informal economy the only survival option for the
vast populace of rural and tribal hinterlands of India. Domestic work
in urban households is a major avenue for employment for these
migrants. Nirmala Niketan, an NGO working for migrant workers from the
tribal regions of Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, has approximated
that 1,00,000 tribal girls from these regions are engaged in domestic
work in Delhi alone.
The only reason that these women get over their fears of living in a
big city is because here they feel that they at least have some means
of earning an income. Back home there are absolutely no livelihood
options, even in urban centres like Ranchi.
Nowhere to go
Shantikala, who is around 18, has come to Delhi from Ranchi with her
young child, as there are no employment opportunities back home. Tara,
who is around 38 years and a mother of five, refused to return to Bihar
even when her husband abandoned her. "What will I do in the village and
how will I feed my children there?" she asks. Nilima, who works with
Nirmala Niketan, adds, "Most of our families are big. No one has less
than five children. That is why we have to come here."
However, the women express their resentment at being referred to as
'servants' by their employers. They are quite aware that it is they who
make it possible for a large number of middle class women to step out
of their homes to take part in the more lucrative formal economy. "When
their work is treated as a valuable service, why should domestic work
not be treated with dignity," says an indignant Bibyani, an Oraon
woman, who is around 25 years old. (The Oraon tribal people inhabit
various states across central and eastern India and traditionally
depend on the forest for their livelihood.)
Unscrupulous agents
But there are other far more serious issues at stake. Many tribal women
can recount incidents in which unscrupulous placement agents separated
young children from their parents and engaged them in domestic work in
urban homes in slave-like conditions. Edna (name changed), 11, had come
to Delhi from Jharkhand with her siblings and mother to work at the
site of the Akshardham temple before being separated from them. When
rescued by Nirmala Niketan from a house in NOIDA, she had completely
lost touch with her family. In such cases, the employers are often
complicit in perpetuating and abetting the act of trafficking.
Birna, who also hails from Jharkhand, says, "The placement agency I
worked with took away my two daughters and sent me to work in Ludhiana
(Punjab). I was not even allowed to talk to them. Finally, they were
rescued with the help of the Domestic Workers' Forum."
Many placement agencies are no more than a mobile phone number and are
thus extremely difficult to track down. Even under the best of
conditions, the agents end up depriving migrant women of a substantial
portion of their income. Currently, such agencies are subject to no
regulation.
Ill-treatment at the hands of employers is another major concern.
Bibyani recalls, "I blindly trusted my employers and asked to hold on
to all my wages for safe keeping. Instead, they kept all my wages and
even accused me of being a thief."
These issues are yet to capture the public imagination. On the
contrary, whenever a domestic worker is found to have committed a
crime, the whole class ends up being branded as criminals. Few people
pay attention to the root of such cases. In fact, the Haryana police
have even launched a questionable drive this April to fingerprint all
domestic workers, effectively clubbing them with criminals.
But do the isolated instances of crime committed by some individuals
match the routine exploitation to which domestic workers are subjected?
Proposing a comprehensive legislation, the Domestic Worker's Bill is a
major attempt to address problems of domestic workers. The Bill is
being drafted by the National Campaign Committee for the Unorganised
Sector Workers (NCCUSW) and Nirmala Niketan, with the support of the
National Commission for Women.
Major proposal
The major proposal of this bill is to set up tripartite boards that
include representatives of domestic workers, their employers and the
government. All domestic workers, their employers and placement
agencies will have to register with the board and contribute a
designated amount, annually, which will be used as a corpus fund to
take care of the many social security needs of workers.
The legislation could also check child labour in domestic work. The
2006 prohibition of child labour in domestic work under the Child
Labour Act has been unable to achieve this.
The Domestic Worker's Bill, if passed, will be an important step toward
securing the rights of the domestic workers who constitute a large
chunk of the unorganised sector workers.
Women’s Feature Service
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/May102008/she2008050967113.asp
Copyright 2007, The Printers
(Mysore) Private Ltd.
