Protect the Helpers!!!!

Domestic Workers refers to those workers who render their services like cleaning house, washing clothes and utensils in exchange of money. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), one in every 25 women is a domestic helper in the world, which comprises of almost 67 million workers. 80% is women population, making them an important part of the informal sector. Government of countries like Brazil, Belgium and Ireland have shown their support towards domestic workers by signing C189 – Domestic Workers Convention.

C189: Domestic Workers Convention

C189 – Domestic Workers Convention was enforced on 5th September 2013. It is 189th convention of ILO which was introduced in its 100th session. The convention consists of a Preamble and 27 articles. The convention was put forth for voting on 16th June 2011. Out of 475 members, 83.36% of the members were for the convention and 3.36% were against it and 63 members were absent. Parliament of Oriental Republic of Uruguay was the first to ratify the convention in the year 2012. As of January 2018, 25 countries have ratified the convention. 

Countries like Brazil whose GDP is approx $1.8 Lakh Crores and India whose GDP is approx $2.26 Lakh Crores hasn’t signed it yet. 

Governments of other countries: Out of 195 countries in the world, there are various countries for whom domestic helpers matter a lot.  Singapore: Since 1st January 2013, the domestic helper gets a weekly off. South Africa: Each domestic helper should be entitled to transport allowances, bonuses and not to work for more than 45 hours in a week with overtime limit up to 15 hours a week.

India

The government of different states have different per day wages. There is an Act 2008 which applies to all the states of India except Jammu and Kashmir. 

To earn the title of “Good Bai”, the domestic worker needs to work for more time at low wages and shouldn’t ask for leaves. Every household wants to have at least one domestic helper, but everyone looks down upon them. Life of a domestic helper is miserable but more miserable is the life of a woman domestic helper. The maid needs to come to work irrespective of her poor health, poor health of any of her family member, instead of following minimum wage law, Indian household follow minimum holiday law which entitles only 5-6 holidays throughout the year which also depends on the mood of the employee. Any female domestic helper works more than any one person on this planet. Her work starts in the morning from doing her household chocs like getting water, cooking food etc. after which working for other households and again in the evening doing her household chocs. Most of the employees just consider them as if they are their slaves, whereas some consider them as a part of the family, some buy them new clothes, pay their children’s fees etc., on the other hand, some give them food which was cooked previous day, give them clothes which could just be used as rags. To survive in cities where the cost of living is high a domestic helper needs to work for at least 7-8 households. Ill-treating them isn’t the only thing the domestic helper has to face, often the domestic helpers are accused of robbery and breaking the crockery. There are some families which are extremely helpful to the domestic helpers and some families which treat the domestic helpers as slaves.

My Take

According to me all the 195 countries irrespective of whether they are termed as developed or developing or underdeveloped, they need to have strict laws to protect the domestic helpers and sign the C189 – Domestic Workers Convention and help ILO in catering the purpose. India may have a law for domestic helpers, but the execution of the law isn’t seen in most parts of the country. Apart from signing the C189 – Domestic Workers Convention, the government needs to have a good governance body who would govern the implementation of the law.

Note: This article was written by me for The Economic Transcript, Mithibai Economic Forum, Mithibai College.