The everyday servitude of domestic workers

Domestic workers, largely women, go from their family to another family system to slave. There is an urgent need to regulate their wages, working hours and working conditions

Geeta Menon

Ravi S.K.

Photo credit: Sarayu Subramanian

Today, June 16, is the international domestic workers’ day.  The International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers in 2011 and we are celebrating its 25th year. And yet, there are only 18 countries that have ratified the Convention so far and India is not one of them. Lack of ratification of the Convention, coupled with unclear legal mechanisms for domestic workers makes them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Their work continues to be uncertain, invisible and underpaid. 

The very aim of the Convention is to give status of a worker to domestic helps and thereby call for decent work standards for them. On this day, it is important to be reminded of the precarious conditions of domestic workers and the socio-legal hindrances in building a rights-based discourse and policy ecosystem favorable to workers’ rights in India, including those who migrate for work.

Domestic work is deliberately invisiblalised as it thrives on poverty, gender and socio-economic hierarchy. Take the life story of domestic worker Urmi Thopna, for example. Her day begins at 5 am and continues till midnight – cleaning, cooking, washing, dusting, childcare and whatever other task the employer asks of her.  This has been going on every day for two years at the residence of her employers, the Vatsas. 

Barely an adult herself, she has been doing multiple chores continuously for 18 straight hours each day. Her employer’s expectation is insatiable. Her long arduous working days also feature abuse and exploitation – including verbal abuse and physical violence. Often, she has been beaten with cricket bats, injured by scissors on her neck and burnt by the iron box. 

Urmi hails from a remote village in Tejpur, Assam. She was moved to Bengaluru by a placement agency that had initially found her employment in Delhi. The agency transferred her without notifying her parents and took an advance payment from the Vatsas, with the agreement that they would pay Urmi a meagre sum of 1800 rupees per month. She never saw this money. Urmi lived in fear for her life for two years, before being rescued and taken to a shelter home. It was after the intervention of the Domestic Workers’ Union that a case was filed with the local police station against the employers. 

Urmi’s story is not an isolated one, there are many sisters who suffer like her. It is an everyday reality for a large number of migrant domestic workers, especially those who work as live-in domestic workers. Numerous cases reveal a mafia of placement agencies who are blatantly involved in the trafficking of girls and women for forced labour, servitude and slavery. Most of these women and girls are from the states of West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.

Work sans social protection

Domestic workers lack social protection from both the state and their employers. Gendered and other social dimensions further enhance vulnerability of domestic workers to indignity, abuse and exploitation. We say, domestic work is gendered, because it is rooted in the patriarchal rubric of unpaid care work.  Majority of the domestic workers being women, it is considered natural that young girls should slave, and their work, like all housework, can be devalued. The domestic workers themselves have also normalized their class, caste and status in society. They themselves value the nuances of loyalty, gratitude, flexibility in this unique employer-employee relationship. The bottom line is that they go from their family to another family system to slave and not to a public formal place as a worker.

The political understanding of care work and the gendered outlook of housework as unpaid labour is one of dominant reasons for apathy. Another aspect is the notion of domestic work being last on the hierarchy from the point of view of caste as well as it being viewed as a non-productive activity.  Majority of the domestic workers who are trafficked are from indigenous and Dalit communities. Their pre-existing socio-economic vulnerabilities reduce not only the chances of bargain, but also their ability to seek legal redress to exploitation and abuse. 

Shaky socio-legal grounds

Currently domestic work is located on a shaky socio-legal ground.  There is no legal recognition of the workplace as a formal one. Therefore, navigating the complexities of domestic work is particularly challenging because it occurs within the private realm of households, where the relationship between the employer and the domestic worker is deeply personal. Additionally, the household is not categorized as a workplace, making it difficult to address any harm that occurs there. 

Furthermore, domestic work is to be understood in the context of the ambiguity in which the domestic workers are situated __ the arbitrary employer-employee relationship, personalization of this relationship, privacy factor of households, no definition of workplace, irregular and variable terms of employment, no legal frameworks unstructured enforcement mechanisms and unlimited supply of labour. 

While the visible stakeholders are the employers, workers, and to an extent the government, the most invisible yet omnipresent ones are placement agencies. Though there is no comprehensive study or data on the number of placement agencies and how they function, they remain a necessary evil for those seeking livelihood. There has been very little political will to bring any policy to regulate the involvement of these agencies in the organized crime of trafficking.

Role of governance 

It becomes the State’s responsibility to identify and recognize domestic workers and to accord a legal recognition to the employer’s home as the formal workplace (akin to a factory). Further there is the need for a legislative framework to regulate wages, working hours, working conditions, leave facilities and social security benefits such as pension and insurance. 

India must ratify the ILO C-189 on decent work. India’s silence and inaction on this front enables large-scale trafficking and slavery of women and young girls. Convention C 189 prescribes the setting up of a Tripartite Board (with representatives from government, employer and employee) to ensure the implementation of minimum wages, paid leave, social security benefits and protection at the workplace.  

In addition, there are many national laws and policies that need to be made applicable to domestic workers. Many international conventions and declarations also need to be ratified and implemented _ from the UN Convention for Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to the Bonded Labour Convention and Migrant Workers Convention, to name a few.  Further, many national laws and practices are not fully in conformity with the provisions of the ILO Convention- C189, including the clauses that mention “written contracts”, which reduces the chances of abuse and exploitation of domestic workers. 

Collective conscience 

Not all is gloomy though. There are some silver linings.  Few states have taken significant steps forward towards improving welfare and protection of domestic workers.  Tamil Nadu, for instance, has established a dedicated welfare board for domestic workers, proposing social protection policies to support them. Similarly, Maharashtra has initiatives in place to recognize and register domestic workers officially as workers. Meanwhile, Karnataka is considering the creation of a task force to govern and support this workforce effectively.

As a country we need to respect the contribution of millions of these workers to both the households and national economy. We need to consider how domestic work can be recognized and structured as decent work. They are productive workers and need to be recognized as such. Domestic workers, enable the GDP, and contribute millions a year to the economy. 

Civil society has a huge responsibility in organizing domestic workers, amplifying their issues and seeking state support in ratifying ILO Convention-189. Further, women's rights are at such a premium in our country that even a few hundred individuals raising their voice and trying to break the culture of silence is of immeasurable value. Every voice counts because women have to surpass class, caste and patriarchy controls to gain visibility and dignity. 

Most importantly, as a nation it is our constitutional duty to respect human labour, dignity and value their contribution to society and economy. Domestic workers are neither slaves nor machines. They are our fellow citizens with equal constitutional rights and duties. Let us not continue to let our heads hang in shame witnessing stories of Urmi and her sisters at work.

Geeta Menon is the joint secretary of the Domestic Workers Union, Karnataka.

Ravi S.K. is an independent policy researcher