Questioning the rationale behind the district administration’s recent guidelines leaving the decision of domestic workers with the residents’ welfare associations, Gharelu Kamgar Union (GKU) — a domestic workers’ union — on Tuesday demanded the local authorities to either ramp up their lockdown relief provisions or ensure that they are allowed to return to work.
GKU convener Maya John, in a press statement, said shortly after the COVID-19 triggered lockdown was partially relaxed on May 4, the woes of the nearly two lakh domestic workers in Gurugram saw no end but a troubling escalation.
‘Basic right to life’
“It has been the experience of GKU that the relief measures of the authorities have been piecemeal and truncated at most, leading to a situation wherein domestic workers have not only been robbed of their livelihood during the lockdown but also their basic right to life and liberty,” read the statement, adding that there had been an undeniable failure of the authorities to provide an uninterrupted and adequate supply of rations as well as nutritious cooked food to Gurugram’s labouring poor.
“Both the governmental authorities and their associated NGOs/social welfare workers have proved incapable of providing day-to-day succor during the lockdown, leading to the current distress of domestic workers,” said Ms. John.
Consequently, the authorities have conveniently concealed their failures by allowing resumption of work, leaving of course, the final decision to the numerous RWAs, she added.
‘A safe measure or not’
“A lot of ambiguity about the re-employment of domestic workers continues to prevail. While there are various individual employers and a large number of domestic workers who wish to have the work resumed, the larger collective authority of the RWAs is skeptical about whether the measure is a safe one to take or not,” read the statement.
In a situation of deadlock like this, GKU strongly pressed the Haryana Government and Gurugram administration to either ramp up their lockdown relief provisions so that domestic workers were not compelled to return to work immediately, or, to ensure that they were allowed to resume work, the statement read.
The union demanded that the Gurugram administration called for an immediate review of the situation unfolding on the ground, including a status report of the food distribution network in all wards of Gurugram and not allow the deadlock to prevail any further with respect to RWAs.
It also demanded that the Haryana Government and Gurugram district administration discussed a concrete wage and rent relief package for domestic workers for April and May.
