Domestic Workers In India: Lack Of Security, Low Wages Push Helps To A Life Of Uncertainty

Domestic helps might be making the lives of millions of Indians easier but lack of pension and absence of decent salary mean their own lives are difficult, with severe resource crunches.

Image by Freepik (representational purposes)

For most middle and upper-middle-class homes in India, domestic workers are an integral part of households. These are the people who work for their employers to make their life at home easier, by taking up the bulk of their domestic chores. And when they are cleaning your homes, taking care of your babies, and cooking your meals, at the end of the month, they are only left with a salary which is often inadequate for running their households and no security. There are no social security benefits like pension and ESI (Employees’ State Insurance).

The National Platform for Domestic Workers (NPDW), which was constituted in 2012, recently held a press conference. According to a report in the Indian Express, the meeting was held "to raise the demand for a legislation that will cover those who are part of the informal sector, with “specific cover” for domestic workers." Members of NPDW demand, the same report mentions, that places where domestic helps work be treated as 'workplaces' and that it should be ensured that they get minimum wages and social security benefits like pensions.

To make matters worse, a large majority of employers of these helps - often the elite and nouveau rich - believe in the traditional divide between who they consider as "masters" and "servants". It's a common practice to see helps eating later than their employees, sitting or even sleeping on the floors, rather than chairs and beds, and eating out of different utensils among other practices - in fact,  such scenes are so common that it doesn't even strike many people that there's something amiss in these practices.

'We Need Security, What Will Happen When We Get Old?'

Alka Kumari, a domestic help working in Saket, shares, "I work in three houses a day and I end up making Rs 18,000 a month. My husband has lost his job and the entire responsibility of my family - my husband, three children and my father-in-law - is dependent on my earnings. I work tirelessly the whole day and when I get back home after 6 pm, I have to do my household chores too. My entire month's salary gets used up and there's nothing left for savings. We need a minimum wage and some form of security."

Another help, Zohra Biwi, who works in Noida, voices a common concern. "What will happen to us when we become old and are physically not capable of toiling and earning our living? Without any security, any pension our future is bleak. We need some sort of safety net."  

Domestic Workers' Rights: Where India Stands 

Giving his inputs on the matter, Mritunjay Kumar, Assistant Professor Of Law, Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla, shares that domestic workers in India, for a long time, have demanded the entitlement of minimum wage. Mritunjay Kumar shares, "As per the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011, 'each member is required to take measures to ensure that domestic workers have minimum wage coverage'. However, India has not ratified this Convention yet. Sections 2 (k) and 2 (z) of the Code on Wages, 2019 define “employee” and “worker” in relation to “establishment” and “industry”. Therefore, it is generally believed that domestic workers may not be covered in the definitions of establishment or industry."

Kumar adds, "However, the right of domestic workers to the minimum wage may be secured through juristic fiction, if the definition of “establishment” under Section 2 (m) of the Code is broadly interpreted, especially taking into account the solemn purpose of the law to secure social welfare, to cover the place of domestic work as the place where “occupation is carried on”. There is another alternative, i.e., if the Parliament of India, through amendment, specifically broaden the “definition of establishment” to cover the “domestic work” within its ambit. In that case, the minimum wage for domestic workers may be easily secured by the legislative will in India."