NEEDED: A LAW TO PROTECT DOMESTIC WORKERS

The lockdown following the coronavirus pandemic, and the overriding imperative of social distancing, have affected work. What has been most hit is work that puts people in physical proximity with each other, and cannot be performed from home. Daily wage labour is one example, and the plight of such labourers has been highlighted. However, another — much less discussed — sector that has been badly hit by the pandemic is domestic workers.

Politicians and civil society leaders of all hues have made appeals that domestic workers be given paid leave until the pandemic passes, and until housework is a safe activity again. Anecdotal evidence reveals, however, that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. There are reports of household help being fired without pay, or in some cases, households requiring domestic workers to continue coming in to work. Altruism is not a strong enough force to protect the interests of workers, who constitute some of the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of society.

The pandemic has made evident something that has been on the margins of public discussion for too long — the gap in India’s legal framework when it comes to the rights of domestic workers. The reason for this is that traditionally, domestic work has not been counted as “work” as is commonly understood, in terms of contribution to the economy. Our traditional understanding of “worker” has revolved around factories or the shop floors, or — more recently — high-end office complexes, and has relegated domestic work to the margins, whether it is performed by spouses and homemakers, or by hired help. This is why labour laws — designed to protect the interests of workers — apply only to industries or establishments that employ a certain number of people; they do not apply to households.

This, however, creates a strange paradox. As Mihika Chanchani wrote recently in The Wire, statistics show that there are 50 million domestic workers in India, predominantly women. Their weak bargaining position subjects them to regular harassment, discrimination, and exploitation. Domestic work, by its very nature, is a fragmented industry, with unionisation being difficult, and where the difference in power and status between employers and employees is particularly stark. However, it is these people most in need of legal protection, who are left without it.

It is, therefore, evident that there needs to be put into place a detailed legislative framework that ensures that domestic workers are treated with dignity and respect. In June 2019, there were reports that the labour ministry was drafting a national policy on domestic workers, which would ensure the payment of minimum wages, social security, and safe working conditions. This is in addition to various state government initiatives towards mandating minimum wages for domestic workers and instituting domestic worker welfare boards.

A proposed law, however, will need to go beyond this, and accord full recognition to the importance and centrality of domestic and care work to the national economy. The International Labour Organization has called for “fair terms of employment” for domestic workers that ensure that they are treated in a manner that is at least as favourable as other workers. This would require a range of workers’ rights — including caps on working hours, bonuses for overtime work, maternity benefits, the prohibition of unfair dismissal (to name just a few). Any such law, of course, ought to be drafted with the participation of domestic workers themselves, as they will be the ones most affected by it. Even more than that, there needs to be a societal change that views domestic workers through the lens of equality, rather than subordination.