Help Wanted

They are the invisible force that runs India, the vast army that makes sure your day runs like clockwork — from ensuring your breakfast, lunch and dinner gets served on time, to making sure your office shirt is crisply pressed; from keeping your 4BHK apartment spic and span to looking after children when mummy and daddy are at work. Domestic helps — they are the cogs that run the machine of everyday existence, they are the ones waiting in the wings of the theatre of daily routine, the Atlas who holds up the dream world of an aspirational India.Should they leave, this dream falls apart. And Kolkata is already in the midst of a crisis, and the pinch is palpable. According to Khokon Seth, who has been running a domestic help agency for six years, the crisis is comparatively new in the city. “There has been a sudden drop in the number of people who are willing to work as domestic helps, and this has happened in the last one-and-a-half years,” he says. “The demand, though, hasn’t fallen. This is leading to a sudden spike in the monthly wages of domestic helps,” he adds from his nondescript office at Keyatalahat, on the southern fringes of Kolkata. Khokon claims this is sharply affecting his business. He has reasons enough to grumble. From a steady customer base of over 100 households that employed domestic maids from his agency, the number has fast dwindled to 60. “The rising costs are putting off potential customers. And sometimes, we can’t find people willing to work,” he explains. Even two years ago, business never looked so dull, he says. He has a point. In 2005, the average pay of a domestic help in the city was around Rs 70-Rs 75 for a 12-hour shift. Now, the average is Rs 200-Rs 250.
The implications A report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) — “Participation of women in specified activities along with domestic duties” — based on a survey conducted in July 2011 to June 2012, throws up some key findings. A closer look at the figures show that in Kolkata, women are spending more time than nationally on household work. The reasons are threefold: no one in the family to carry out domestic duties; inability to afford hired help; and social and religious constraints. On the criteria of inability to afford hired help, Bengal is only next to Haryana, and 188 women out of 1,000 have to work at home because they can’t afford hired help. Pan-India, the figure is 87 women out of 1,000. The survey reveals that domestic help wages, if routed through agencies, have increased by 100% to 120% over the last few years. Ritusmita Biswas, an entrepreneur, says: “For my eldest daughter, I had hired a domestic help for Rs 90 to Rs 95 per day even three years back. The same agency is asking for Rs 190 to Rs 200 a day now, that too with food (two meals and a tiffin) for a 12-hour shift. The rates are too high now. I have to make do with part-timers, whose rates have risen to at least Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 a month, but they are not as good as the ones from the agencies.” Changing mindsets are also apparent in the NSSO report, which reveals that 77.8% of rural women in Bengal are keen on part-time jobs, against a mere 16.5% who want full-time employment. The other facet is borne out by the Socio Economic Caste Census, 2011. Women from rural Bengal are less inclined to take up work as full-time domestic helps. Under this broad head, only 1.89% of rural women in Bengal are keen to work as full-time domestic helps, whereas the figure, nationally, is 2.5%. The survey clearly indicates that cultivation and casual manual labour seem to draw more women than domestic work. Also, Jalpaiguri, Malda and East Midnapore have the largest percentage of women who migrate to other parts of the state and even outside for domestic work.
The possible reasons State panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee feels the reason is more to do with more women getting work under the 100-day NREGA scheme. “If they have an assured earning for Rs 171 per day for at least 100 days a year, domestic helps will not tend to migrate to urban locales,” he says. “If you analyse this, you will notice that agency rates for domestic helps is always above this Rs 171-per-day benchmark. But a larger percentage is opting for NREGA work because domestic work, though marginally more paying, doesn’t give them freedom. Also, more women are opting for NREGA work now compared to 2011.” Amit Kundu, who specializes in rural and labour economics at Jadavpur University, had extensively researched the subject. He concurs with Mukherjee to some extent, saying NREGA has provided an alternative to rural Bengali womenfolk. “Consider the nature and scope of domestic work,” he says. “For 12 hours, one is working in a home non-stop. There is no limit to the number of tasks to be completed. The wages are not specific. The employers keep changing, so there is no job security either. Why would people choose to work in such circumstances? Having a specific skill-set — babysitting, nursing — means increased wages,” Kundu adds. He links the wage spike with the overall price-rise across the board. “Haven’t your wages or mine increased twofold in the last decade? Add to it the increased travel costs, food costs, and other expenses, and you’ll agree this isn’t in isolation…. The attrition rate for domestic helps is high since demand exceeds supply. Domestic helps often quit due to poor salaries, commute distance or an uncomfortable work environment,” he explains. Sharmila Chatterjee, whose agency provides services to several states and countries, agrees there is a scarcity of domestic helps. “The reasons are simple,” she says. “Opportunities for alternative sources of income have increased manifold. These work give women the flexibility of working closer to their homes.” Chatterjee, who has been working in this field for over two-and-a-half decades, says: “People are keen to acquire skill sets which would help them augment their earnings…. In a typical city household, husband and wife both leave for work. They would want a responsible person to take care of their child and do the chores. These helps should ideally be more trained than regular help. For such couples, money isn’t a factor; work is.” Women’s rights activist and academic Saswati Ghosh says the reason for aversion towards domestic work could be the “relative freedom of work”, specifically the lack of it. The work conditions of a domestic help varies from household, are restrictive and undefined, she argues. “It ceases to be a matter of choice. Employment conditions keep varying, and so do the tasks. But in other spheres, a person’s relative freedom isn’t curtailed,” she says.
What the law says There are several legislations on minimum wage, protection against abuse and insurance at the state and central levels. For example, the Unorganized Social Security Act, 2008, the Sexual Harassment against Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Minimum Wages Schedules that were notified in various states. So far only seven — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan — have notified minimum wages for domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Only three states — Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu — have each constituted a welfare board for domestic workers. Even though RSBY was extended to cover domestic workers in 2011, only a few states have implemented it. The Bengal government has finally woken up to the plight of domestic workers. In June this year, the state indicated it was keen to frame laws to determine wages of domestic helps. The short-term objective was to bring them under social welfare schemes. “We will extend to them healthcare and childcare benefits,” says state labour minister Moloy Ghatak. The minister also outlines the drawbacks. “Categorizing domestic work is a challenge. People have different tasks, work in multiple households and their wages vary from place to place. We haven’t worked out a uniformity,” he adds.
National-level efforts India has adopted the ILO convention on domestic workers. According to the ILO, the right of workers and employers to form and join organisations (workers’ unions or employers’ groups) of their own choosing is an integral part of a free and open society. On the right to collective bargaining, the ILO says the right of workers to bargain freely with employers is an essential element, and workers can approach employers directly or through their representatives for ‘collective bargaining’. To protect the interest of domestic workers, the Centre is readying a national policy that proposes a minimum salary of Rs 9,000 per month for skilled full-time household helps, along with benefits, including social security cover and mandatory leaves. The draft ‘National Policy for Domestic Workers’, which will soon be moved for Cabinet approval, also calls for provisions against sexual harassment and bonded labour and recommends compulsory paid leave of 15 days a year, apart from maternity leave. Once it comes to force, the policy will make it binding to enter into a tripartite agreement between the employer, the worker and intermediary agencies. The policy recommends minimum monthly wages for domestic workers. Workers and employers will also have rights to form groups and engage with each other for ‘collective bargaining’.