17 Mar Protection of Domestic Workers in India

Protection of Domestic Workers in India

This article covers “Daily current events “and the topic is about ‘Protection of Domestic Workers in India’ which is in news, it covers “Social Justice” in GS-2, and the following content has relevance for UPSC.

For Prelims: Protection of Domestic Workers in India

For Mains: GS-2, Social Justice

Why Protection of Domestic Workers in India in the news

• Recently, social workers rescued a 14-year-old girl from a Gurugram home where she was working as a domestic worker.
• The incident has brought to light the poor quality of paid domestic employment in metropolitan India, where worker faces abuse and exploitation in an unregulated industry.

About Domestic Workers

• Domestic workers, according to the International Labour Organization, are individuals who work in or for a private household or household. Such as sweeping, cleaning utensils, washing clothes, cooking, child care, and other remunerated labour performed for an employer.
• They provide direct and indirect care services and play an essential role in the care economy.

Domestic Workers

Status of a domestic worker in India

• Domestic workers employed 39 lakh persons in 2012, at least 26 lacks of whom were women.
• According to a 2016 Bengaluru-based research, 75% of them were Scheduled Castes, 15% were OBCs, and 8% were Scheduled Tribes.
• Also, 25% of minor domestic employees were under the age of 14.

Issues faced by the worker

• It is informal.
• Underpaid and unpaid
• There is no legal contract.
• Work hours that are not specified.
• Faced with discrimination and violence, as well as sexual harassment and exploitation.
• Encounter discrimination from placement agencies (companies that hire these workers) and/or traffickers.
• The domestic worker has been subjected to violence.
• Uncertainty about their data.

The International measures to protect domestic Workers

• Domestic Worker Convention (No. 189) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) approved the Domestic Worker Convention (No. 189) in 2011 to safeguard domestic worker.
• June 16th is World Domestic Worker Day, commemorating the adoption of International Labor Organization Convention 189 for Decent Employment for Domestic Worker in 2011.
• Your Work Is Important – The ILO has started a public awareness campaign called “Your Work Is Important.”

Measures were taken by the Indian government to protect Domestic Worker

• There is no specific regulation or policy in place to control those who operate in the domestic work sector.
• Unorganized Sector Social Security Act of 2008 – The Act established the first legislative framework to give social protection to the worker, including domestic servants.
• Social Security Code, 2020 – The code, which superseded the Unorganized Sector Social Security Act of 2008, is still in effect.
• Child Work Act, 1986 – The Indian government barred children from undertaking domestic housekeeping in 2006, identifying it as a sort of “hazardous child labour”.
• They are included as a defined category of ecotone workers in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act of 2013, with the house as a recognised workplace.
• Only Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura have included them in the schedule of the Minimum Wages Act.
• The National Commission of Women introduced the Domestic Worker (Registration, Social Security, and Welfare) Bill in 2008.
• Domestic Workers’ Welfare Bill 2016 – Recognised a private residence as a workplace, and broadened the meaning of “wages”.
• Both the 2008 and 2016 bills have yet to be passed.
• The Labour Ministry proposed a National Domestic Worker Policy in 2019 to regulate placement agencies and incorporate domestic workers under existing regulations.
• India has signed the ILO’s 189th convention, known as the Convention on Domestic Worker, but has not yet ratified it.

What should be done for the betterment of Domestic worker

• Placement agencies must be controlled.
• The government must collaborate with social workers to defend the domestic.
• Domestic employees must be protected by legislation.
• Genuine data for domestic employees is required.

Source:

The Hindu

plutus ias current affairs  17 March 2023

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