Estimate
the size of the domestic help sector, factor in the minimum wage requirements
and what you actually pay your help. The maths should shame you.
On
1 October, the Delhi media reported the
plight of a 15-year-old domestic help who was rescued from a Vasant Kunj house
by cops and activists the previous evening with a deep gash in her head and severe
knife and dog bite injuries.
The
same day, South China Morning Post reported that
Hong Kong’s domestic helps were "very disappointed and angered" by
the government’s decision to increase their minimum wage by just 2.3 per cent
to HK$4010. That is more than R30,000 a month.
India
has its own minimum wage legislation. Both Centre and states can fix these
wages in various sectors for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers. If
one is refused minimum wages, he or she can complain to labour inspectors or
respective trade unions. Section 22 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 says that
contravention of the rules formed under the Act is punishable with fine and
imprisonment which may extend to period of six months and payment of arrears by
the employer.
But
domestic helps are not covered under any minimum wage rule, except in Karnataka
where they are entitled to at least Rs 191 daily. For 26 days, that works out
to be Rs 4,966 a month. This, however, does not take into account the cost of
living in big cities, such as Bangalore that employ most domestic helps. Delhi,
our only city state, is a case in point where the minimum monthly wage for
unskilled workers in any sector – the list did not mention domestic helps
though – was raised from Rs 7,722 to Rs 8,086 this
month.
It
is perhaps pointless to compare the status of our domestic helps to their
counterparts in Hong Kong or Singapore where minimum wage ranges between Rs
23,000 and Rs 30,000. But there is no reason to deny them the minimum wage for
unskilled or even semi-skilled labourers. At least in the big cities, if we
follow the Delhi benchmark, they deserve to be paid a minimum of Rs 8,000 a
month.
In
practice, a domestic help in India earns anything between Rs 1000 and Rs 6000,
depending on where she works and if she is a live-in, full-timer or part-timer
working in multiple homes. Except in a few posh housing societies and neighbourhoods
of Delhi national capital region, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh,
their average monthly wage remains below Rs 2000. Employers who pay more often
pay directly to placement agencies. There is nothing in lieu of annual or
weekly leave forgone because helps, particularly the live-ins, are rarely
entitled to any.
There
is no way to tell how many are employed as domestic helps in India. Estimates
vary wildly, from 90 million to 4.2
million (NSSO, 2004-5). But if India’s 300 million-strong middle class
population makes for at least 60 million households and if even half of those
employs at least one domestic help, we are looking at a 30 million-strong
workforce. At a conservative average of Rs 6000 per month, we are duping them
of Rs 18,000 crore every year; year after year. The actual figure may well be
double or triple that amount.
Women
and children are the bulk of this workforce and are vulnerable to torture and abuse.
It is illegal to employ children below 14 years. At the same time, there is no
denying the reality that the domestic help sector is vital for the livelihood
of millions of poor families who are desperate to send any member out to earn
whatever little possible. Also, not all of us can get over our ingrained dependence
on ‘servants and maids’ overnight.
The
practice may be a necessary evil but domestic helps deserve secure work
atmosphere, reasonable entitlements such as leave, insurance and other basic
benefits. While the government must step in to reform the sector and make
schemes such as medical and retirement funds mandatory, the urban, educated and
affluent employers have no excuse for treating their helps as bonded labour and
pay a pittance just because they can.
While
cribbing about the culture of corruption among the ruling elite, the middle class
should also look inward. In the last decade alone, it has directly duped some
of India’s poorest of hundreds of thousands of crores, certainly more than what
the coal scam is worth. It is never an excuse that nobody (read a regulatory
authority) was looking. Probity begins at home.
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