| Publication: The Times Of India Delhi; | Date: Jun 26, 2011; | Section: Deep Focus; | Page: 15 |
HOME TRUTHS MAID IN INDIA India has just signed a UN convention to give new rights to its 4.75 million maids. How will this affect the middle class? And how will the new guidelines work on the ground, asks Saira Kurup
Given a choice, Sapna Maudgal would rather do without her full-time maid. But holding daytime jobs, the techie and her doctor husband have little choice but to depend on Neelima, 20, to take care of their six-year-old daughter and the house. "We had to pay Rs 20,000 to the agency as registration, and her salary is Rs 3,500. That's quite a sum for us, and she's not that well-trained too," says Sapna.
Neelima might be having a relatively safe working environment, but lakhs of others in the country, mostly women, sweep and swab in the domestic space, sometimes for long hours and in abusive environments. In India, official estimates talk of 4.75 million workers employed in private
households. NGO estimates point to up to 20% of the total workforce in India being employed in domestic work and that one-fifth of them are working full-time.
It's for improving the lot of this large vulnerable section that India and 469 other countries signed a convention in Geneva recently under the aegis of the International Labor Organization. The convention requires governments to bring domestic workers within the ambit of labour legislations on minimum wage, working hours, day of rest in a week, overtime wages, terms of employment, social security, and maternity protection. It also contains detailed requirements for governments to regulate private employment agencies, investigate complaints and lays down special measures for migrant workers.
But how would it be implemented? Would employers be willing to see them as "workers" and not "servants" or even "family members" who are at their beck and call 24x7? Who would regulate the working conditions of a part-time worker who works, say, five houses in a day? Ravi Wig, president of the Employers Federation of India, who was the only Indian representative to vote against the convention in Geneva, says, "I think the first requirement is employment generation in a country where 25 crore people are unemployed. The best social security is to give a man a job. Also, imagine that you are at work, your mother is alone at home, and an inspector from the labour department comes to check the working conditions of the domestic worker. I felt it was premature."
That invasion of the private space is probably what's spooking employers. Father Jose Vattakuzhy, secretary of the commission for labour of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, which is helping the government in the drafting a national policy on domestic workers, says, "They feel that when we standardize domestic work, our homes will become the workplace." He adds that employers had been opposing the extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to domestic workers, but he's happy now that the government has done the needful.
Not all employers share such reservations. Delhi homemaker Vimala Prasad says, "Domestic workers are likely to give their 100% only when they know that they are being taken care of." Some years ago, says Vimala, her husband bought life insurance policies for the full-time maid and her child, and even paid the premium during the time she worked for them.
Activists are hoping that more such employers show see their domestic helps as workers and less as "kaamwali" and "naukrani". Sister Christy, national coordinator of the National Domestic Workers' Movement that is campaigning for dignity in domestic work, says, "Domestic workers are not included in the Minimum Wage Schedule; there are no welfare boards for them in many states and they are deprived of social security. We have a long way to go to achieve the aim of dignifying domestic work. The government should take responsibility to give social security, pension, define working hours, and introduce a comprehensive legislation."
But official attempts at establishing equity have been lethargic. "It's three years since Maharashtra passed the Domestic Workers Welfare Board Act, but the board has not started functioning. It's not been decided who would be the members. We get promises but nothing concrete has been done," says Sister Christy. Some states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have either included domestic workers in the minimum wage schedule or included them in social security schemes etc, but that's simply too little.
Baijnath Rai, general secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, who was the Indian representative of workers at the Geneva meet, points out, "Even if the government ratifies the convention fast, it would take the law at least a year-and-a-half to come into effect. Just think, of the 188 conventions India has ratified, it has implemented only 43 so far."
However, more than any number of laws, it would be the attitudinal change that's urgent. Sapna Maudgal is not too happy about the fixed hours of work or the overtime wages clause. But the representative of a placement agency in Gurgaon that provides domestic workers to expats, diplomats and the upper middle class, is optimistic: "Some clients might even consider giving health benefits if it's economically viable. Already, many clients are sending their cooks to culinary classes to upgrade their skills." Isn't charity, after all, expected to begin at home?
AND WHAT ABOUT THOSE ABROAD?
The lure of fat salaries and a good life take a number of Indian domestic workers abroad, to work for Indian families there. Many a time, it's a happy arrangement for both parties. But there are also whispers about abuse and harassment of workers which often go unreported. And, sometimes, these cases make headlines as with Prabhu Dayal, the Indian consul-general in New York, who has been accused of forced labour and harassment.
"The laws are weak" to handle such cases, says human rights activist and advocate Asim Sarode. He cites the 2008 case of a domestic worker Kalpana Salunke who was working for a Indian couple in Spain. "She faced a lot of abuse by the male employer and a Spanish friend of his. Her hands were tied behind her back and she was given electric shocks. That's when she ran away," Sarode says. Salunke tried to file a case with the Spanish police, but it being a Friday evening, with the police stations reportedly closed for the weekend, she could not do so. Her employers, on coming to know that she had taken refuge in an Indian club, came and immediately put her on a flight to India. "We have sent complaints to the Spanish police but the family is absconding since then. Now we have filed a complaint with the CBI and are planning to approach the Supreme Court,"
says Sarode.
At the national level, activists have been protesting the exclusion of domestic workers from the purview of the sexual harassment in the workplace Bill, meant for protection of women. Father Jose Vattakuzhy, secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India's commission for labour, says, "It's a sad thing. Our worker representatives have met Sonia Gandhi and spoken to her about it." Urvashi Sharma, president of Lucknow-based group Yaishwaryaj, has been running an online campaign for the inclusion of domestic workers in the Bill. She says, "One of the objections being made is that some of the harassment cases by domestic workers are false – how would we deal with them? But even in the genuine cases, there's little action. Mostly, the worker is asked to reach a compromise."
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