It is already acknowledged by ILO that the domestic workers are the worst hit segment in the labour market during the one and half years of the COVID-19 crisis. This situation is most likely to continue for some time, since the majority of the households employing them have not only discontinued with their services during the COVID-19 crisis but also are not allowing majority of them to return to their work out of fear of that the domestic women workers might bring infection to their homes. Majority of them have lost their only means of survival, and their number may be anywhere between 4 to 5 millions.

We don’t have accurate or latest data about domestic women workers, but the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2017-18) had estimated their number to be more than 5.2 million in the country out of which 80 per cent were women. Though the Modi government had announced the creation of the database for unorganised workers, it has been missing deadlines after deadlines. It was expected that the database would also include the domestic workers, however, Union government has adopted exclusionary policy for them. The domestic workers and affiliated unions allege that the government is intentionally keeping them out of the ambit of the database, sabotaging their all hopes for being able to get even recognition as worker, what to talk about the benefits of labour laws and social security schemes.

They are entirely uncovered by any social security schemes because even after ten years of adoption of the ILO’s Domestic Workers’ Convention almost nothing has been done in India. The country has not even ratified the provisions of decent work for domestic workers. The domestic workers have been fighting for even legal recognition, equality, decent remuneration and working conditions, and social security. The pandemic has further exposed their continued vulnerabilities. Moreover, Modi’s four controversial labour codes will even exclude them from their scope and ambit, simply because they do not mention home as a workplace.

Many in India may have firsthand knowledge about the exploitative attitudes of majority of people who employ domestic workers at very small wage taking benefit of their helplessness. Majority of domestic women workers work as domestic help entirely for survival for the self and their children. Most of them are illiterate who choose such jobs in absence of any better job in the labour market. When country was put under lockdown last year on March 24, the most domestic workers were asked by their employers not to come in their homes, putting them in perilous conditions followed by a tragic story for every domestic help and their children, because of lack of any social security for them in this country.

A recent report released on the tenth anniversary of the historic International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on domestic workers has brought it to cognisance of the people as to how domestic workers are still fighting for recognition as workers and essential service providers despite their labour rights were confirmed by the convention. Working conditions for many have not improved in a decade and have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report emphasized.

India is the second largest employer of domestic workers in the world, but only 8.7 per cent were live-in domestic workers in 2019. That is why lockdown and containment measures affected 91.3 per cent of the domestic workers because their employers feared them they would bring infection from outside to their homes. Migrant dome

According to the Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council, a non-profit organization under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, about 23.5 per cent of migrated domestic workers returned home, nearly 85 per cent of them did not received any wage during lockdown. Domestic women workers in India are generally not even covered by labour laws of the country. Even in the matter of minimum wages, only 12 states of the country have made its provision, though at very lower rates than other workers.

The Union and state governments in India must see into the plight of the domestic women workers in the country. They must bring the domestic workers under labour and social security laws. India should immediately start social dialogue between employers, workers and governments so that the employment relationship gets recognition. The social dialogue should cover safe work, adequate earnings, decent working time, stability and security of work, social security, non-engagement of child labour etc. Wherever there are some laws relating to domestic workers, the governments must find out the implementation gaps and bridge them. Our effort should aim at adequate level of protection for them with decent working conditions.

Apart from this India must also find out some ways to help the desperate domestic workers who are struggling for their own and their children’s survival and have become extremely vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation in our essentially indifferent and even exploitative and unsympathetic society and governance. (IPA Service)