When will we understand the importance of domestic workers?

 (Why are their feelings of insecurity and inferiority not humane to anyone)

 

 ----Dr. Satyavan Saurabh,

As soon as we talks about domestic workers,our mind gets distracted and his chest gets filled with pain as to how the poor people do all sorts of low-level work to put out the hunger. They continue to do more work for less money even after abusing them all the time. The number of domestic workers in our country is in crores. According to a survey, there are 4.75 million domestic workers in India, of which three million are women in urban areas. There are over 50 million domestic workers in India, most of whom are women. In big and small towns, you will see 'Bai' working in almost every fifth house working at very cheap rates.

 

In our daily life, there must be a woman around who is invisible who suddenly comes to our house in the morning, sweeps, washes clothes, cooks food, and spends the day with children and the elderly..But despite doing so much, she disappears in our daily life in such a way that we do not know anything about her. Or do we not give it a special place? We don’t know where they came from in the cities, where they live, how many more houses they work in, how much they earn, and what kind of life they live?

 

The number of domestic workers in India has increased by about 120% in the last decade, of which 26 lakh are female domestic workers. Due to which most of the houses in India are cleaned and food is available, but today domestic workers are facing a challenge during the epidemic and the Government of India and the state governments are not doing anything special for them?

 

Today, about 80% -90% of domestic workers in Delhi and Mumbai have lost their jobs. The lack of government welfare schemes and assistance has exacerbated their crisis. The lack of social security for domestic workers in Delhi has hit them hard. Although states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have welfare boards for domestic workers and many other unorganized workers welfare boards that have come forward at the moment, what about the rest of the workers across the country?

 

The biggest thing is that even the national capital has not fixed that minimum wage for domestic workers, as has been done by other states like Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Which is frustrating for workers across the country. The reason behind this is that domestic workers are commonly known as servants and maids. As a result, their feelings of insecurity and inferiority have not been humane to anyone, otherwise, it would have been a special issue of politics. If anything is missing in the house, they are threatened, physically abused, questioned by the police, convicted, and even fired and unable to say or do anything.

 

The possibility of exploitation of domestic workers is equally the same inside and outside the threshold of the home. Women domestic workers are subjected to various forms of cruelty, oppression, and exploitation by the owner of the house. Most of the domestic workers are from weaker communities - tribals, Dalits, or landless other backward classes. Almost all of them are migrant workers. And there are a huge number of women. That is why it is very easy to exploit them and change them whenever you want.

 

They are also not given any special rights in the laws, neither the Maternity Benefit Act nor the Minimum Wages Act or any other labour law is applicable to domestic work. Domestic workers are hired and fired. There is no provision for weekly leave, maternity leave, and health benefits. As such, they do not have legally binding rights. Abuse of domestic workers, mental, physical and sexual abuse, allegations of theft, not using toilets inside the house, etc., touching them, such as separate cups for tea is a common thing.

 

Domestic workers in India are abused step by step. But their cases of torture, assault, sexual abuse, and harassment never reach the police station. Nor do they become the headlines of newspapers and TV. The main reason for this is that organizing domestic workers has been a big challenge. Because their workplaces are inaccessible and scattered. Only then these unions could not come forward and have been deprived of their rights.

 

Domestic workers today are deprived of the minimum wage, working conditions, conditions of service, social security, etc. across the country. These hard-working people are forced to live a life of the population, abject poverty, slavery, humiliation, insecurity, neglect, oppression, and uncertainty. So far, despite all the suggestions and pressures, the central government has not taken any step towards enacting a law for domestic workers at the central level.

 

The government should now legislate to provide them with economic and social security legally and set a precedent before the state and central governments across the country. The central government should implement a draft national policy on domestic workers as soon as possible which includes guidelines on minimum wage, fixed working hours, leave, social security, maternity leave, nursery, working environment, salary, and other facilities. Sark to provide many other facilities including a minimum wage for domestic workers like housemaids.

 

The government should now legislate to provide them with economic and social security legally and set a precedent before the state and central governments across the country. The central government should implement a draft national policy on domestic workers as soon as possible which includes guidelines on minimum wage, fixed working hours, leave, social security, maternity leave, nursery, working environment, salary, and other facilities. The government came up with a national policy to provide many other facilities, including the minimum wage, to domestic workers such as housemaids.

 

The provisions of the minimum wage are important means to protect the weakest and lowest-paid workers so that the domestic worker can get rid of unwanted low wages and work with self-respect. Domestic workers should be officially given the status of unorganized workers by the government order so that other parts of the unorganized workers have the same limited legal rights that domestic workers are also entitled to.

 

Special inspectors should be appointed in all labour offices to ensure the effective implementation of all laws and government orders relating to domestic workers. At the same time, special monitoring committees should be formed comprising representatives of domestic workers, representatives of trade unions, representatives of women's organizations, civil rights activists, and representatives of employers. Special cells should be set up at police stations for strict monitoring and prompt action on sexual harassment or any kind of harassment in the workplace.

 

Those who hire them should also understand that like others, they also have rights which they must get, which they have not got till now. At the same time, we all need to know and understand the existence, identity, and identity of domestic workers. For this, there should be a plan to provide special coverage to these workers in National Old Age Pension Scheme, National Family Benefit Scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, and Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana along with Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.

  

-- Dr. Satyavan Saurabh,

Research Scholar in Political Science, University of Delhi,

Poet, independent journalist and columnist, All India Radio and TV panelist

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