Welfare of Domestic Workers in India – Problems and Solutions

8/17/2019 Welfare of Domestic Workers in India – Problems and Solutions

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Welfare of Domestic Workers in India – Problems and Solutions

Avishek Chakraborty1

ABSTRACT

Domestic workers in India have always been categorised under the umbrella of ‘unorganised

labour’ and have been excluded from the laws and welfare schemes of the government. As

er the results of !mloyment"#nemloyment $urvey of %ational $amle $urvey

&rganisation' the estimated number of domestic workers emloyed in the country was (1.)

lakh during *+11"1*. ,ith the maximum number of domestic worker being women and

children' there has been many cases and reorts of exloitation. %o formal contracts ensuring

an emloyer"emloyee relationshi' lack of organisation' oor bargaining ower' no

legislative rotection and inade-uate welfare measures with no rovision for weekly

holidays' maternity leave and health benefits are some of the key issues that need to be

addressed. In *+1+' the %ational Commission for ,omen %C,/ had drafted the 0Domestic

,orkers ,elfare and $ocial $ecurity Act' *+1+ 2ill highlighting the exloitative nature of

domestic work by surious lacement agencies. It addressed the working conditions of

domestic workers' including their registration. 3owever' it has remained as a roosal and

the law is yet to be assed. Domestic workers invariably reresent the more marginalisedcommunities in society and therefore the need for a law to enforce the human rights of

domestic workers is being strongly felt.

1. INTRD!CTIN

4rom the time of indeendence in 15(6 in India' there had been significant

changes in resect of recognition of worker’s rights. After 15(6 there had been a lot of effortsin ousting the social and cultural differences between classes in Indian society with an

attemt to dissolve all the ill ractices and customs which had become a dee rooted roblem

in India. 7he olicy makers realised that if the workers are given rotection and if they can be

vested with some basic natural rights' the class of underrivileged workers can also lay a

significant role in national develoment in country’s 8D9. Indian 9arliament had assed

several statutes to rotect the workers' who are art of recognised list of schedule

emloyments. 3owever' in none of the laws enacted by Central government' domestic

1 Assistant Professor, School of Law, Christ University, Bengaluru.

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workers were recognised under the list of scheduled emloyments. 9olicymakers never

rioritised the need to regulate or to rotect the rights of 0domestic workers in India.

&ver the ast few years' there have been innumerable cases of domestic workers

: nearly all of them female' many of them minors : being abused and exloited by their

emloyers. 7he abuses range from withholding of wages to starvation' not allowing time for

slee or rest' to beatings' torture and sexual exloitation. 9aid domestic work continues to be

excluded from the central list of scheduled emloyments under the ;inimum ,ages Act of

15(abour ?egulation and Abolition/ Act' 156+ or the

;aternity 2enefit Act' 15=1. 7he %ational Commission for ,omen drafted a ‘Domestic

,orkers and ,elfare and $ocial $ecurity Act' *+1+’ 2ill. It is accumulating dust. 7herefore'it is evident that there is no national law for domestic workers and they have been excluded

from various laws that rovide social security benefit for workers in general. Domestic

workers invariably reresent the more marginalised communities in society and therefore the

need for a law to enforce the human rights of domestic workers is being strongly felt.

". PR#S#NT STAT!S $ D%#STIC WRRS IN INDIA

8overnments all over the world find it very difficult to estimate accurately the

number of domestic workers. $ome of art"time domestic workers may not reort domestic

work as their main occuation' as they would take this work occasionally when work is not

available in their villages. 07here are varying definitions of domestic work in national

statistics. $ometimes samle surveys conducted miss out on domestic workers intensive

inhabitations' which remained concealed in slums.* 3owever' as er the results of

!mloyment"#nemloyment $urvey of %ational $amle $urvey organisation' the estimated

number of domestic workers emloyed in the country was (1.) lakh during *+11"1*. %ational

estimates for *++("+@ suggest (.6@ million workers were emloyed by rivate households'

).+@ million of these were urban women. In India around 5) of working force belongs to

2 Ministry of labour an !"#loy"ent, $ovt. of %nia,&'inal (e#ort of )as* 'orce

on +o"estic or*ers&, Se#te"ber 12, 2-11, #age. as cite in +o"esticor*ers/ 0ow to $ive )he" )heir +ue, Centre for Civil Society or*ing Pa#er o.

23, available at htt#/44ccs.in4internshi#5#a#ers42-124235o"estic6wor*ers5#an*huri6tanon.#f, accesse on 7ctober 81, 2-19 at : #.".

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unorganised sector and excluding agricultural working force' i.e. around 1)) million workers

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;igration continues to be an imortant asect to domestic work. ,hile it is

imossible to use national data to analyse the share of migrant workers within the sector'

micro studies estimate the roortion to be very high in metroolitan areas such as Delhi. =

According to Eachariah and ?aan' Ferala the state that sends the largest number of workers

from India. A recent survey shows that over fourteen ercent of emigrants from Ferala are

women but only about half of them as workers. 3owever' with a samle only from

7hiruvantahuram' %air in 1555 found that out of six returnee migrants were women and that

most of them were engaged in menial tasks. Interviews of fifty unskilled women who have

returned from or desire to go to an Arab country to work gives us an understanding of the

difficulty they encounter.6

Indian domestic workers are art of informal sector that belongs to care"economyIn India' ‘domestic work’ is not a recognised field as far as alication of labour laws is

concerned. It is understood and underestimated ust as social or ersonal activity which have

been neglected by olicy makers at the time when they draft any rovision' law or

regulations. #ltimately it results in massive exloitation of domestic work. 8enerally in India

most of the domestic workers belong from marginalised section of the society. 7hey are aid

very less for their services. 7hey do not have any organisation or unions of their own that can

hel them to unite and fight for their rights' most of the domestic workers who come from

distant laces as migrants' in search for a ob' often face real difficulty while bargaining for

their wages.

9 %nian +evelo#"ent $ateway 2-11, 'inal (e#ort of )as* 'orce on +o"estic

or*ers > (ealising +ecent or*, Ministry of Labour an !"#loy"ent, availableat htt#/44www.ing.in4social6sector4unorganise6

labour4national5#olicy5on5o"estic 5wor*52-11.#f, as cite in aveen ?. @ain,

+o"estic or*ers 6 Laws an Legal Provisions in %nia/ Strengthening o"ens!cono"ic Security an (ights, electronic co#y available at/

htt#/44ssrn.co"4abstract298-, accesse on ove"ber e, 2-19 at 3 #.".

: Sharayana Bhattacharya an Shalini Sinha, +o"estic or*ers in %nia/Bac*groun an %ssues


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'. (AWS AND P(ICI#S )*#RNIN) W#($AR# $ D%#STIC WRRS

IN INDIA

It has been already maintained that as such there are no roer laws which can

govern and regulate this searate class of working force. ;ost domestic workers are self"

emloyed by agencies an there is no mechanism to regulate their work. All the debates and

discussions on roviding ‘ust and humane’ environment to domestic workers in India has

gone to all in vain.


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trafficking of women and other young household workers. 3owever' the Act does not aly

to such domestic workers who have immigrated for emloyment to any other country.

;inistry of >abour and !mloyment has launched ?ashtriya $wasthya 2ima Gona ?$2G/

to rovide health insurance coverage for 2elow 9overty >ine 29>/ families and also to

domestic workers.

'.". T,# -D%#STIC WRRS W#($AR# AND SCIA( S#C!RIT+ ACT

"/1/0 BI((

7he 0Domestic ,orkers ,elfare and $ocial $ecurity Act' *+1+ 2ill is a roosed

comrehensive enactment secifically designed to meet the working condition of the

domestic workers including registration. It was drafted in *+1+ by %ational Commission for

,omen. 7he emhasis in the draft 2ill' among many other things' is on the regulation of

lacement agencies. It also observed that in the absence of a Central Act' many initiatives of

$tate governments to get domestic workers under the minimum wage notification were not

getting realised.

7he legislation rovides for a Central Advisory Committee and $tate Advisory

Committees and for district boards' whose main resonsibility will be to carry out the

registration of domestic workers' emloyers and service roviders. 7he boards are to be

emowered to grant relief in case of accidents' and rovide financial assistance for the

education of children' medical assistance for the treatment of the beneficiary and maternity

benefits. 7hey can arbitrate disutes through conciliation. 7he boards are also meant to

imlement schemes or any welfare measures framed by the Central board in consultation

with $tate boards. 7he roosed legislation uts the onus of registration of the domestic

worker on the emloyer' esecially in cases where the worker is emloyed through an agency

or emloyed full time.5

It also stiulates the setting u of a Domestic ,orkers ,elfare 4und' to be

administered by the district boards' and has many rogressive and ositive features listed

Hague Pro"ise, 'rontline, Holu"e 23, %ssue 19, @uly1:, 2-11, available athtt#/44www.frontline.in4static4ht"l4I23194stories42-11-22319---.ht", accesse onove"ber :, 2-19 at #.".

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under working conditions for domestic workers' including a maximum of eight hoursH work'

food' sufficient eriods of rest' and a weekly day off for full"time workers. &vertime rates

have also been laid down. 7here is a section on offences and enalties as well. 7his

comrehensive roosal is lying in cold storage even as a iece"meal benefit resembling

health insurance has been doled out to domestic workers.

'.'. NATINA( P(IC+ $R D%#STIC WRRS "/11

A task force of ;inistry of >abour and !mloyment framed a draft %ational 9olicy

for domestic workers in *+11 and it is a maor ste towards formulating an umbrella law for

domestic workers. 7he %ational 9olicy has recognised the imortance and the roblems of

the market for domestic worker. It has also emhasised the need for ‘inclusion’ rather than

exclusion of domestic workers in the existing legislations as well as ‘sulementing these

with legislations secific domestic workers.’1+

7he %ational 9olicy rooses giving right to domestic workers to register them as

workers with the ;inistry of >abour and !mloyment' 8overnment of India. ?egarding

themselves as workers will give them access to rights and benefits that are given to any other

worker and also it will give them the right to seek legal remedy in case of disute with their

emloyer. 7he olicy gives domestic workers the right to form or oin any 7rade #nions or

other organisations. It also gives domestic workers right to decent working conditions by

enacting minimum wage laws' establishing number of hours' rest eriods' etc. ;oreover it

talks about roviding social rotection and social security benefits like health and maternity

benefits' death and disability benefits' etc.

Imortantly' the olicy intends to rotect the domestic workers who are seeking

work abroad. 7he olicy rooses that the ;inistry of >abour and !mloyment in

collaboration with ;inistry of &verseas Indian Affairs set u a suitable legislative

mechanism so that terms of contract are made clear to the emloyee before he goes abroad.

7he Central 8overnment will be re-uired to establish a mechanism for regulation of

1- +o"estic or*ers/ 0ow to $ive )he" )heir +ue, Centre for Civil Societyor*ing Pa#er o. 23,#. , available at

htt#/44ccs.in4internshi#5#a#ers42-124235o"estic6wor*ers5#an*huri6tanon.#f,accesse on 7ctober 81, 2-19 at : #.".


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lacement agencies of domestic workers. 7ill such a mechanism is formulated' all the

lacement agencies must be registered under the $hos and !stablishments Act' 15@). 7he

9lacement agencies also need to maintain all the records regarding domestic workers and

their emloyers which will be sent to $tate >abour Deartments.

'.. 2!DICIA( R#SPNS#3

In National Domestic Workers Welfare Trust vs Union of India,11 the etition filed

by the etitioner' the %ational Domestic ,orkers ,elfare 7rust %D,,7/' aims not only at

rotecting rights of Domestic ,orkers but also all children forced to work in this field. 7he

aim is to give domestic workers the same status as regular workers and consolidate existing

laws in their favour. 7he etitioner' camaigns for the recognition of the rights of Domestic

,orkers and has layed an instrumental role in drafting the ‘Domestic workers Conditions of

$ervice 2illH of 155=. $uch a bill will offer Domestic ,orkers legal rotection against

exloitation.

7he etition addressed these issues and seeks directions for a minimum level of

rotection to domestic workers as guaranteed under the Constitution of India' which would

include a/ Comrehensive legislation to rotect the rights of domestic workers is enacted b/

;inimum wage for domestic workers c/ $chemes for benefits of domestic workers such as

ayment of wages' weekly holidays and medical assistance d/ $afety of women and children

emloyed as domestic workers.

7he etition sought orders directing the resondents to enact comrehensivelegislation to rotect the rights of Domestic ,orkers. In resonse to this etition' the Central

8overnment has submitted that the #norganised $ector ,orkers 2ill' *++( will include

rovisions for the safety' social security' health and welfare of #norganised $ector ,orkers

including domestic workers. 9revious to the etition the Domestic ,orkers were not included

in the schedule of emloyment in the #norganised $ector ,orkers 2ill' *++(.

11 rit Petition


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. APPRAISA( $ T,# #4ISTIN) (#)A( $RA%#WR& R#)!(ATIN)

D%#STIC WRRS IN INDIA3

As far as welfare of domestic workers are concerned' all the draft 2ills look good

on aer' but insire little hoe of making a difference in the real world in the absence of

mechanisms for insection and enforcement. 7ime and again trial courts have also urged the

government to make a law to deal with the issues of domestic workers that will not only

rotect the workers but also safeguard the emloyers from getting conned1*. ;any a time

cases are not officially reorted' due to the domestic worker’s confinement in rivate homes.

9ractically' law enforcement agencies cannot curb exloitation without a roer law.

Domestic work is not considered as a real work. It is ust an extension of household services

which are not even accounted in 8D9. 7he Indian law is clearly not ready to consider thehome seriously as a worklace worth regulation or monitoring. 1) $o long as there is a mind"

set that the home is a rivate sector even when it is a worklace and domestic work is ust

housework and not ‘roer’ work' the aathy of the state towards the light of domestic

workers will continue. At the same time' worklace is considered to be a rivate lace' it is

not always accessible to legal scrutiny. Any designated authority will not be able to move in a

rivate residence of the working condition without the consent of the owner.

7he %ational 9olicy has roosed that ?esident ,elfare Associations ?,A/

should be involved in heling the domestic workers regarding the benefits and rivileges

rovided to them by the government and also involve the domestic workers in skill building

activities. 3owever' the members of ?,A who are the emloyers of domestic workers will

reluctant to romote the skill building activities since that will rovide uward mobility to

domestic workers. It will encourage domestic workers to -uit domestic work and shift to

better obs re-uiring more skill. Conse-uentially bargaining ower of existing domestic

workers will be increased and that will not be favourable to the interest of emloyers.it will

be very difficult to make skill building centres and grievance redressal centres accessible to

12 $roun realities for o"estic wor*ers, @anuary 18, 2-12, available athtt#/44www.thehinu.co"4toays6#a#er4t#6national4t#6newelhi4groun6realities6

for6o"estic6wor*ers4article2988.ece, accesse on 7ctober 81, 2-19 at 9#.".

18 ho will hel# %nias o"estic hel#s, 7ctober 81, 2-18, available at

htt#/44www.live"int.co"47#inion4BD-Jhyn!9r%78K'8?ntK*L4ho6will6hel#6%nias6o"estic6hel#s.ht"l, accesse on ove"ber 2, 2-19 at 8 #.".


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each and every domestic worker' as suggested in the %ational 9olicy1(. ;oreover' monitoring

of lacement agencies is an issue to be addressed. Domestic workers coming through

lacement agencies are not brought to the cities by a single agent. 7here are multile agents

who have a well organised network for migration and handling of these domestic workers.

3owever' on June 1=' *+11' Domestic ,orkers Convention adoted at the 1++ th

International >abour &rganisation I>&/ Conference. It can be considered as a maor ste

towards recognition of domestic workers’ rights because the Convention sought to bring in an

estimated @) to 1++ million workers worldwide under the realm of labour standards. 1@ 7he

Convention recognises the significant contribution of domestic workers to the global

economy and says this work is 0undervalued and invisible' and mainly carried out by

women and girls' many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities.

5. CNC(!SIN

7he entire discourse brings to the conclusion that with the growing significance

of domestic work within the urban labour market' there is concomitant minimum legal

rotection and social security for workers generating imortant household and care services.

As already discussed' domestic work is not recognised as ‘work’ by the Indian government.7rade unions and other organisations working with domestic workers have been ressurising

for a shift in its olicy on domestic work. Domestic workers are not included in most of the

legislations and it reflect the lack of interest to engage with the comlexities of domestic

work. ?econcetualising the legal framework so as to enable effective imlementation is

vital. 7his will re-uire national labour laws to extend recognition to domestic work as ‘work’

through the inclusion of the sector within the ambit of minimum wage and disute settlement

laws.

1 +o"estic or*ers/ 0ow to $ive )he" )heir +ue, Centre for Civil Society

or*ing Pa#er o. 23, #. 11, available athtt#/44ccs.in4internshi#5#a#ers42-124235o"estic6wor*ers5#an*huri6tanon.#f,

accesse on 7ctober 8-, 2-19 at 2 #.".

19 $roun realities for o"estic wor*ers, @anuary 18, 2-12, available athtt#/44www.thehinu.co"4toays6#a#er4t#6national4t#6newelhi4groun6realities6

for6o"estic6wor*ers4article2988.ece, accesse on 7ctober 2, 2-19 at 1-a.".

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At the same time e-ually critical is the issue of resonsibility of the emloyer in

recognising the imortance of the domestic worker in their lives' give due recognition to their

works and treat them with resect and dignity. &rganisations and the government will have to

involve emloyers in the discussion to make them aware of the rights of domestic workers.

9rofessionalising the occuation of domestic work or ‘housekeeing service’ will solve the

roblems osed by the informal sector for both emloyers and emloyees of this work. 1= $o

long as there is a mindset that the home is a rivate sace even when it is a worklace and

domestic work is ust house work and not ‘roer’ work' the aathy of the state towards the

light of domestic workers will continue. Although few $tate >egislatures have assed a

searate statute for domestic workers and some states have recognised domestic workers in

their minimum wages laws' there is an immediate need of an effective central statute that can

fix the regulation and welfare of domestic work in all arts of India.

1: aveen ?. @ain, +o"estic or*ers 6 Laws an Legal Provisions in %nia/ Strengtheningo"ens !cono"ic Security an (ights, electronic co#y available at/

htt#/44ssrn.co"4abstract298-, accesse on ove"ber 8, 2-19 at #.".

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Welfare of Domestic Workers in India – Problems and Solutions