No help for the domestic helps

Domestic workers struggle to make ends meet as employers choose to keep them away even during the ‘unlock’ phase. The lack of government welfare schemes or one-time monetary assistance has only compounded their woes

July 05, 2020 11:00 pm | Updated July 06, 2020 10:46 am IST - New Delhi

House helps have been mostly out of job since the pandemic hit the Capital.

House helps have been mostly out of job since the pandemic hit the Capital.

After her husband died in 2012, Rita Devi, 36, went to her village in Chapra, Bihar. With opportunities to eke out a living scarce, in 2014 she boarded a train to Delhi with her four children to seek employment as a domestic worker. By March 2020 Ms. Devi was working part-time in five homes, but when the novel coronavirus hit the country and a nationwide lockdown was announced, she suddenly became jobless.

“I came here to earn as there was no work in the village. I never foresaw a situation like this when I left my village,” said Ms. Devi, her elder daughter looking on.

The family lives in a one-room house at Devli in south Delhi and has not been able to pay the rent for the past three months. Ms. Devi has borrowed ₹10,000 from a neighbour to tide over the lockdown downturn. “The government should help us,” she said.

Ms. Devi’s is not a lone case. Many of the dozen-odd domestic workers The Hindu interviewed said they have lost their employment due to the virus outbreak and are finding it hard to make ends meet despite borrowing money.

The lack of social security for domestic workers in Delhi has made the blow harder on them. Though States such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have welfare boards for domestic workers and many others have unorganised workers’ welfare boards, Delhi does not have either. The national capital has also not fixed minimum wages for domestic workers as done by other States such as Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, among others, according to officials.

“Compared to other States, Delhi is worse in terms of laws for welfare of domestic workers. There is a lack of will on the part of the government,” said Christin Mary, national coordinator of National Domestic Workers’ Movement, which has a presence in more than 16 States, including Delhi. “About 80%-90% domestic workers in Delhi and Mumbai have lost their jobs,” she said.

A national policy for domestic workers, which can be a safety net, is still in its draft state and a Central government Act for welfare of unorganised sector workers is implemented more in the breach across the country, according to experts.

After the lockdown, the Delhi government announced ₹5,000 for registered construction workers and later extended it to drivers of licenced mini and rural public transport. But no such help was provided to domestic workers. A Delhi government spokesperson did not respond to multiple calls and messages seeking comment on their exclusion.

Plight of workers

Ms. Devi said that a week ago she finally found some work — of cleaning the outdoor areas of two buildings, but the earnings are less.

“Luckily, my landlord is not pressuring me for rent. But I have to pay him for the pending three months sooner or later,” she said. “Earlier we used to get cooked food from the government school in Durga Vihar. Now they have stopped supplying that too.”

In west Delhi’s Basai Darapur, Renu, a house help who used to work in four households, hasn’t gone to work since March 20; none of them are willing to call her back at the moment. For many such as Ms. Renu, it’s been status quo for the last three and a half months.

In Basai Darapur where most men are either rickshaw-pullers or factory workers and the women house helps, many families have left for their native villages after waiting for work for close to three months.

When The Hindu visited these shanties in May, seven women were still waiting to be called by their employers. Of the seven, five have since left for their villages, mostly in Uttar Pradesh.

“There was no work. Here in the village, at least there is no stress over how to arrange for the next meal,” said Neetu, speaking over the phone from her village near Allahabad.

Ms. Renu and others who decided to stay back are struggling to survive.

A mother of three minor children, Ms. Renu said that she called all of her employers each time lockdown restrictions were relaxed, but they are yet not ready to let her in again. They’re not willing to pay as well, she said. “One of them called and told me to tell her if I needed money. When I did to ask for ₹2,000, she refused saying her husband has been out of work too,” she said.

Ms. Renu’s husband, who used to work at an eatery in Ghaziabad, is also out of work because the stall owner hasn’t reopened yet. “Twice, he has worked at a construction site and earned ₹800 a day because we ran out of money,” she said. Ms. Renu said they have stopped buying milk and fruits on a daily basis ever since they felt the monetary pinch.

Meenakshi (25), Ms. Renu’s neighbour and the mother of a one-year-old son, said she is going for cleaning work to one house out of the four she earlier used to work at. “I resumed work at this house on July 1. Thank god they called me,” she said.

The last three months since the announcement of the lockdown, she had to take a loan of ₹6,000 to be able to take care of her son and old mother. Ms. Meenakshi has been in the middle of a divorce with her husband since she was three months pregnant.

Another Basai Darapur house help, Simran, 20, said she has also not been called for work since the lockdown began.

In Jasola in south Delhi, 30-year-old Omwati Devi, from Uttar Pradesh, said she was fired by others because she works at a doctor’s house.

“In the first week of June, I was working in the kitchen when the person who lives there asked me where else I work apart from his house. I told him I work at the doctor’s house. He then told me that his landlord was putting a lot of pressure on him to fire me,” said the mother of two children.

“I had worked at his house for two whole months during the lockdown and still he fired me. I have small children and my husband is also out of work. This is wrong,” she said.

Neglect by govt.

Though the domestic workers have been hit the most now, the problem is more deep-seated.

The unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act was passed by Parliament in 2008 but after 12 years, it is still not applicable in the city as the Delhi government has not formed rules based on the Act to implement it, according to officials.

The Act covers domestic workers and provides formulation of social security schemes for life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits and old age protection by the Central government.

The State governments are mandated under the Act to formulate suitable welfare schemes for unorganised sector workers relating to provident fund, employment injury benefits, housing, education schemes for children, skill upgradation of workers, financial assistance and old age homes.

Explaining the reasons behind the Act not being adopted in Delhi, a senior government official said, “Though the Act was passed in 2008, it was only in 2014-2015 that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs gave the Delhi government the power to execute it. In 2015-16, it was sent to the Law Department [Delhi government] and kept going back and forth.”

Change in policy

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government, after coming to power in 2014, started working to codify and simplify 44 existing labour laws into four codes.

One of the codes, The Code on Wages Bill, has been cleared. But the other three codes are yet to be passed by Parliament.

The Code on Social Security, 2019, introduced in the Lok Sabha but not yet passed, will subsume eight laws, including the unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008.

“We are not making rules under the Act [2008] as it will be subsumed by the new code. We are also not registering workers under it,” the official said.

But Ms. Mary said it was only an excuse by the Delhi government. “The Act was passed in 2008 and had the Delhi government wanted, it could have registered workers under it and formed welfare boards before the simplification of laws began in 2015. The Delhi Assembly can still pass a separate legislation for welfare of domestic workers like Maharashtra has done, if it wants,” she said.

The Delhi government has also not allowed forming of unions for domestic workers and the matter is currently pending in the High Court, according to officials.

“Out of the 16 States we work in, in 12 States we have formed domestic workers’ unions. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, among others, have registered domestic workers’ unions. It offers better bargaining power and better facilities for domestic workers,” said Ms. Mary.

Back in Devli village, clutching a ₹800 mobile phone with a faded keypad, which she had bought three years ago, Ms. Devi said, “I got the saree I’m wearing from the house I was working in last Diwali. But I doubt whether I will get any this year. Every fourth or fifth day, I call them and ask whether I can resume work. Sometimes, if I’m in the neighbourhood, I go and ring the doorbell too. But they are yet to hire me back.”

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