{"id":16341,"date":"2021-07-28T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?post_type=article&p=16341"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T05:23:17","slug":"securing-economic-and-social-rights-for-domestic-workers","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/article\/rights\/securing-economic-and-social-rights-for-domestic-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Securing rights for domestic workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought many lives to a standstill. In addition to grave health repercussions, it has resulted in a deluge of socio-economic and humanitarian suffering due to lockdowns and restrictions aimed at curbing transmission. As policymakers grapple with these conflicting pressures, millions of informal workers—domestic workers included—have faced tremendous uncertainty with regard to their work and income. Despite an easing of lockdown restrictions across India after the first wave, 45 percent of domestic workers<\/a> faced some form of job loss. From those who managed to keep their jobs, many had to accept lower wages and faced working conditions fraught with health and safety risks.<\/p>

Despite the launch of the national vaccination drive, domestic workers have been left wondering about the accessibility of vaccines. Runaben, a migrant worker from Bihar, was concerned that vaccine side effects could cost domestic workers (and other daily wage workers) two days of paid work. “Behen, aise time mei jaha kaam ki kami hai, agar ussmei teeka lenge aur do din chutti bhi, toh ghar kaise chalega?” <\/em>(At a time where there is already a shortage of work, if we get vaccinated and have to miss two days of work, how will we run our households?). Runaben further highlighted a limitation of the mandatory online registration for the vaccines. She said, “Aapse phone pe baat karne ke liye Punam Devi ke ghar aayi hu, teeka ke liye naam kaise du?” <\/em>(I have come to Punam Devi’s house to speak to you over the phone, how will I register for the vaccination online?)<\/p>

In an effort to understand and articulate the challenges faced by domestic workers like Runaben during the first lockdown, SEWA’s<\/a> learning hub carried out a study<\/a> across Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat in May 2020. Key findings revealed that 82 percent of domestic workers were not paid during the lockdown in 2020 and that 37 percent of them lost their work and livelihood opportunities altogether. As a direct consequence of this, 75 percent of respondents reported<\/a> a change in diet due to reduced incomes. <\/p>

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Eighty percent of the surveyed domestic workers claimed to have suffered moderate to severe economic crisis.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Another study<\/a> carried out jointly by SEWA and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO)<\/a> in the Delhi NCR region in November 2020 corroborated these earlier findings. Eighty percent of the surveyed domestic workers claimed to have suffered moderate to severe economic crisis and only 20 percent reported any access to food rations. Additionally, 43 percent of the domestic workers claimed to have between three to seven dependents<\/a>. When combined with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates<\/a> of 75-80 percent of domestic workers being the sole breadwinners in their families, the data paints a rather grim picture.<\/p>

The condition of domestic workers in India<\/strong><\/h3>

By definition, informal workers are susceptible to exploitation due to the absence of work security and social security. However, within this subset, domestic workers fare far worse than their counterparts in construction work and street vending who benefit from protective<\/a> legislation<\/a>. Consequently, street vendors and construction workers significantly out-earn domestic workers in both rural and urban contexts. <\/p>

In fact, domestic workers were revealed to be the lowest paid amongst all the informal trades studied by WIEGO<\/a>. This is despite the immense scale of the domestic work sector. Official estimates suggest that there are 4.75 million domestic workers<\/a> in India; but this is likely to be a gross under-estimation and the real number is actually closer to 50 million<\/a>. Moreover, domestic work is a trade dominated by vulnerable individuals such as women—who constitute 80 percent<\/a> of domestic workers globally—and also includes minors. <\/p>

The vast difference between the socio-economic realities of domestic workers and their employers produces a skewed power differential.<\/p><\/blockquote>

While some definitions of domestic work<\/a> are broader and include roles such as gardeners, drivers, and watchmen, others only account for work done within the home, which is typically performed by women. This includes cooking, cleaning, childcare, and elderly care. Among these tasks, there exists a further hierarchy that mirrors caste-based attitudes towards purity and pollution. <\/p>

For instance, most households hire different domestic workers for cleaning and cooking. It is also commonplace for employers to maintain separate cutlery for domestic workers. Many also suffer the indignity of having either no access to or separate access to toilets and elevators. While these practices may not directly be classified as ‘untouchability’, the fact that they are based on the nature of work is certainly a remnant of the caste system. It is also not a mere coincidence that a study conducted in Bangalore revealed that 75 percent of domestic workers surveyed belonged to Scheduled Castes while only two percent were from forward castes<\/a>. <\/p>

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Domestic workers and their representative organisations have made small but important progress towards securing their rights. | Picture courtesy: National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM)\/Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The vast difference between the socio-economic realities of domestic workers and their employers produces a skewed power differential. This in turn produces class-based friction and also maintains a relationship more akin to master and servant, rather than employer and employee. These dynamics are simultaneously a reason for and a consequence of the lack of policy protection. Class-based friction further produces mistrust and ill-will, and also leads to the misconception that power is a zero-sum game, due to which employers seem hesitant to support protective legislation for domestic workers. <\/p>

Understanding the challenges to creating policy change<\/strong><\/h3>

Domestic workers perform vital care work in millions of middle-class and wealthy households across the country, thereby allowing the women of these homes to participate in the labour force. So why has the policy response to domestic workers been so lethargic? A confluence of prevailing class, caste, and gender attitudes seems to constitute the bedrock of the resistance to policy change. Other factors include:<\/p>