Regulate working conditions for domestic help, say activists

PUNE: With India signing a United Nations convention to give new rights to maids, social activists in the city observe that several issues, such as fixing minimum wages, offering gratuity, pension, regulating working conditions and issuing identity cards, need to be tackled.
The need of the hour is regulation of pay scales, says Kiran Moghe from the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatna."Regulation of working conditions and pay scales are must. And for this, we need to have a concrete law," says Moghe. The association has 30,000 domestic help as members, who earn an average monthly pay of Rs 1,200-Rs 1,500.
The Domestic Workers' Act 2008 and the Social Security Act passed in 2008 are legislations that are supposed to safeguard the rights of maids.
"But the legislations have not been implemented effectively. Domestic help are still recognised as part of the unorganised sector. The Social Security Act that was passed by the government in December 2008, is yet to be fully implemented, with no boards formed at the state or district level yet. This needs to happen first," says activist Baba Adhav. The union government had recently announced an insurance scheme for domestic helps.
"We've to see how well this scheme will be implemented. Our association has 7,000 maids. They need an identification card. We've been constantly telling the state government that since domestic help are part of an unorganised sector, they deserve social security. They deserve financial security in the form of provident fund schemes or workers' compensation. None of these have been addressed. The monthly wages are decided after bargaining and negotiating," says Adhav.
"India signing the UN convention is a positive move as it will help associations like our's to fight more effectively for the rights of domestic helps," says Adhav.
The big question, however, still remains. "What has the state done to improve the payscales and working conditions of domestic help?" asks Medha Thatte, secretary of Pune City Domestic Workers Association, that has a membership of 10,000 maids.
"We are insisting on minimum wages. Plus, a regularisation or standardisation of pays based on the skills required at work and hours spent per day. These women deserve gratuity, pension, insurance schemes, weekly-offs and other benefits under the said legislations. We have been fighting for a legal status for our members," Thatte says. Through regular protests and morchas, the association has, to some extent, succeeded in bringing about improvements in some of their members' wages.
"The upper middle class has started recognising domestic help as a community that deserves basic rights. There have been examples of some employers increasing the monthly wages of their maids, from Rs 50 to a few hundred rupees. However, this has to happen on a large scale," says Thatte.