Women Domestic Worker

Abstract

Paid domestic work is an informal sector activity which is highly fem-inised, with increasing numbers of women workers being involved, especially in urban areas. This is a reflection of both demand (disposable income, aversion to undertake certain tasks, time poverty and vacation of care spaces among working women) and supply side (poverty, unemployment, rising consumption needs, aspirations , ease of entry) factors. Domestic work is highly and peculiarly personalised in the sense that each contract is between one employer and employee-worker and the workplace is the house of the employer; which the place is also of stay for live in for the duration of their work tenure. All these characteristics lend themselves to a peculiarity, which can very often contest with the usual parameters of legitimacy as labour market activities on several counts. Thus, although paid domestic work is indeed a legitimate labour market activity, often the employers and even the workers may tend to confuse the matter and not recognise it as such. The direct negative fallout of this is the invisibilisation of workers, non-recognition of workers' rights and non-provision of any social protection measures. 6.1 Background The number of domestic workers has increased in most of the countries across the world. Around the world, at least 52 million people-over 90% of whom are women-earn their living as domestic workers (ILO 2013). Thus, the domestic work constitutes one of the main sources of income and employment for millions of women the world over including India. It is an urban phenomenon and their demand has augmented in recent years mainly due to enhancement in women's participation in regular paid jobs in services or industries as discussed in previous chapters. The improvement in household income, purchasing power and emergence of nuclear families result in hiring of more domestic workers. Hence, their demand has also intensified in developing countries like India particularly cities and metros over the This chapter is largely based on study conducted by Institute of Human Development in Delhi and report published by ILO 'Persisting Servitude and Gradual Shifts towards Recognition and Dignity of Labour' (Balwant Singh Mehta is the co-coordinator of the study).