The rights of the domestic helps are being ignored amid increasing urbanisation and absence of any law exposes these workers for exploitation. In last three decades the number of female domestic helps has increased at a rapid pace and various studies suggest that a major chunk of these women is from the deprived sections of the society.
The number of these workers in our country are in excess of three crore and it is matter of great concern that despite being an important part of the economy and society they are victimised. These issues were raised in a press conference organised under joint aegis of Himad and Unorganised workers rights forum here on Sunday. Deepa Mehra of the forum said that problems like absence of any rules governing work of domestic helps, absence of any paper work or contract, very low wages are responsible for absence of any law .
The project coordinator of Himad Ajay Rawat said that long work hours, absence of any weekly off and absence of any legal protection exposes these domestic helps for physical, mental and sexual exploitation. He said that a strong law is needed to be enacted for these workers. DS Pundir said that many States of the country like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have taken an initiative for enactment of laws for these workers. He said that in Uttarakhand also advocacy for such a law is being done and a memorandum to state labour minister has also been submitted. Relevant documents would be presented before the Governor of Uttarakhand on October 24.