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Comprehensive Legislation for Domestic Workers is Need of an Hour
Comprehensive Legislation for Domestic Workers is Need of an Hour
Comprehensive and Independent Legislation to regulate the working conditions of Domestic Workers and Efficiently implement already existing laws on domestic workers is need of an hour. India being a signatory to International Labour Organisation Convention c 189 has not ratified the treaty by bringing comprehensive and independent legislation for domestic workers.
Unorganised worker social security Act 2008 was enacted to regulate the working conditions of people employed in unorganised sectors including Domestic workers but there is no Definition of domestic workers in the statute and this loophole is enabling the employers to exploit the invisible working section of the society saying that the Domestic Workers are not included in the definition of WORKERS in this statute and in labour law statutes.
Unorganised worker social security Act was enacted in 2008 and since its enactment, it is not been effectively implemented nor the labour ministry has taken any steps to protect the interest of domestic workers through the implementation of this act.
In Sharmjeevi Samiti v State of NCT Delhi, the Hon’ble Supreme court has directed the central and state Govt for effective implementation of this act and to register all domestic workers under this Act.
In Vandana Prasad vs Ministry of Labour and Employment the appellant sought information on the status of implementation of unorganised workers social security act 2008 and information on several domestic workers, construction workers who have received maternity benefits and since she got no information appellant approached this commission and in Para 09 of the order, it is mentioned that only decimal point of women is receiving benefits under this act. The commission directed the ministry to provide information to the appellant on statistics of domestic workers within 90 days and to effectively implement the provisions of this act.
In Domestic Workers right Union v Union of India and others, the petitioner has explained the problems faced by domestic workers as the benefits of the social security act and the pandemic reliefs given to the domestic workers has not reached them and the court in its daily orders asked the state govt of Karnataka to provide record as to how many domestic workers have availed the benefit of 2000 rupees given to domestic workers and asked the state govt to carry out the process of registration of domestic workers as the law was enacted in 2008 it has been 11 years and still many domestic workers are not registered.
Domestic Workers Welfare and social security act Act 2010 Bill drafted by the National Commission for women has a clear definition of domestic workers and have unambiguous provisions to protect the interest of domestic workers but the bill is not yet passed in the houses of parliament since 2010 till 2022.
Code on social security 2020 was enacted to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised or any sector. Though this code covers unorganised sector workers as beneficiaries neither it defines Domestic Workers nor the home of an employer of the domestic worker is recognised as a workplace hence domestic workers are excluded from any right to social security under this code. The Code on social security statute is also yet not implemented since 2020.
The above-mentioned Statutes and Precedents indicate the need for effective implementation of the statutes governing the unorganised sector workers and to enact comprehensive and independent legislation for Domestic Workers or to amend the provisions of existing statutes and include the definition of a domestic worker in the statute as they are deprived of all benefits under labour statutes as they are not included in the ambit of definition of workers in the statute. Code on social security must be amended according to ILO C-189 before its enforcement. It should include unambiguous provisions and a clear definition of domestic worker and the govt should take some steps to create awareness among the citizens about the rights of domestic workers.
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