SEWA - India
Special Action Programme to combat forced labour
International Labour Office
Geneva
2012
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International Labour Organization 2012
First published
2012
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ILO / SEWA, India
Indispensable
yet unprotected: Migrant domestic workers from India at risk
Geneva,
International Labour Office, 2012
ISBN (print)
(web pdf)
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Foreword
Contents
Acknowledgements
SEWA thanks the ILO and Ms Leanne Melnyk in
particular, for offering it the opportunity to look more closely into the
issues of migrant domestic workers in India. This section of workers,
while increasingly indispensable, has attracted little or no attention from
policy makers. They are also poorly organised and therefore invisible. As this
study throws more light not only on the problems they face but also on lacunae
in the legislative framework that should be remedied in order to make migration
safe and decent, we hope that policy makers as well as trade unions and other
workers’ organizations will be able to utilise aspects of this study to
consider how best these workers can be protected.
The field work for this study was conducted
by members of SEWA-Delhi and SEWA-Kerala and I particularly thank Ms Namita and
Ms Stuti in Delhi, Ms Sheena Bashir (who also
did the data processing), Ms Kavitha, Ms Sharanya in Kerala and the members of
Nirman and Nirmala Niketan in Delhi
particularly Mr Subash Bhatnagar, Ms Chinmayi and Ms Adriyani.
I also thank Dr P.M Nair IPS, Mr Anurag
Gupta IPS, Ms Bharati Sharma and Dr Praveena Kodoth who helped throw more light
on the issues at stake and suggested ways of tackling them.
As always, it is the actual respondents who
gave of their time to answer questions and tell their stories and experiences
that are the core of this study. They remain anonymous. Our gratitude to them
will be expressed in the measure in which we are able to take this work forward
through advocacy and awareness raising to make migration for domestic work safe
and decent.
SEWA certainly has a challenge ahead.
NaliniNayak
Secretary
SEWA
Bharat
Acronyms
CWC Child
Welfare Committee
ECR Emigration clearance
required
ECNR Emigration
clearance not required
GOI Government
of India
ILO International
Labour Organization
ITPA Immoral
Traffic in Persons Act 1956
JJA Juvenile
Justice Act 2000
MOIA Ministry
of Overseas Indian Affairs
NREGA National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
NGO Non-government
Organization
Norka-Roots Non-resident Keralite Affairs Department
OWRC
Overseas Workers’
Resource Centre
PGE Protector General of
Emigrants
PoE Protector
of Emigrants
RSBY Rashtryia
Swasth Bhima Yojana (National Health Insurance Scheme)
SEWA Self
Employed Women’s Association
SJPU Special
Juvenile Police Unit
UAE United Arab Emirates
Executive Summary
The demand for domestic labour is on the
increase both within India
and in several other countries. This indispensable yet unrecognised and
invisible labour force is vulnerable and subject to abuse. This study seeks to
understand the problems of migrant labour in domestic work and assesses the
nature and extent of abuse with a view to ascertaining whether these workers
have been victims of trafficking for labour exploitation as defined in the
Palermo Protocol.
It examines two of the most frequented
migration routes for female domestic workers: one being an internal route in east
India from the state of
Jharkhand to New Delhi and the other an
emigration route from the state of Kerala in south India to the Arab countries.
The Kerala study reveals that the need for
money to meet present day exigencies is the major push factor for women,
particularly widows and single mothers. The majority of migrants from Jharkhand
are young women, some still below the age of 16, who migrate mainly because of
lack of work opportunities locally and for mere survival.
In the case of the Kerala, despite the
existence of informal networks that assist migration to the Arab countries, the
majority of migrant workers depend on agents to facilitate the process and pay
them large sums of money as service charges. The large majority of these women
are ignorant of official emigration requirements and many unwittingly become
illegal migrants.
Various loopholes in existing emigration
procedures and lack of coordination between the Ministries of Indian Overseas
Affairs (MOIA), Home and External Affairs have encouraged unregistered agents
to exploit the legislative anomalies and the ignorance of potential migrants
for monetary gain. These agents have succeeded in creating an efficient
mechanism to not only facilitate illegal emigration through a process called
‘pushing’ but also to assist workers who get trapped in the process to return
home through what has grown to be called ‘the embassy’. This has given them
greater credibility in the eyes of workers who thus prefer to choose the
informal rather than the formal channel for emigration.
As a result of this, emigrant workers are
prone to different kinds of abuse and even to forced labour both during the
emigration process as well as at work. Besides, Arab citizens also make profit
from immigration by issuing ‘free’ visas, thereby providing further scope for
illegal transactions. Further, as the Arab countries do not recognize domestic
workers as workers, they have no recourse to grievance redress from the labour
establishments of either the host country or their country of origin.
Lured by better prospects and hoping they
will not be the unlucky ones, women tend to play down the difficulties and
hardships they face abroad. A few more vocal ones advocate for government
intervention, for instance, by creating an appellate body for grievance
redress.
Labour agents play an increasingly
important role in interstate migration from Jharkhand to Delhi. They not only earn by charging
employers in urban areas large placement fees but also demand travel costs from
the workers and make deceitful deductions from their salaries. They have
developed a widely acceptable system of engaging workers for periods of 11
months at a time during which the worker cannot leave the employer.
The majority of migrant domestic workers
from Jharkhand are live-in workers, many of whom report physical abuse, use of abusive
language, restriction of movement, long hours of work and lack of clarity
regarding actual wages – conditions that denote deception, abuse and forced
labour.
Whereas the Inter-State Migrant Workmen
(Regulation of employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1978 is silent concerning
recruitment processes, the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 has been effective to some
extent in the rescue of workers below the age of 18. However, it is ineffective
in punishing the perpetrators of the crimes that lie outside its purview.
There are several semi-government
institutions and NGOs that reach out to emigrants in Kerala and a growing
number of domestic worker organizations in Delhi. However, only a tiny percentage of
these workers either know of or belong to them. Those more aware of their rights
express the need for emotional support and a shelter in case of need.
Various anomalies within the existing
legislative framework lead to impunity in cases of abuse of these workers. The
Emigration rules for domestic workers state that they require emigration
clearance and that they should be at least 30 years old. Such discrimination in
relation to domestic work creates a stigma, is discriminating on grounds of
gender and provides scope for exploitation both during recruitment and at work.
The employment of minors as domestic workers is still common practice in India
despite the inclusion by the Government of India (GOI)of this occupation in the
list of hazardous child labour (2006), prohibiting it for boys and girls under
the age of 18.
This study reveals that the majority of
migrant domestic workers are victims of trafficking and forced labour according
to the international definitions of these crimes. Unfortunately, domestic law
in India
lacks a comprehensive definition of trafficking which the present Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Amendment Bill of 2006 also fails to remedy. Although the
GOI has developed an Integrated National Plan of Action against trafficking and
is taking steps to put some remedial measures in place in the form of
Integrated Anti-Trafficking Units and Anti-trafficking nodal cells, a more
comprehensive legislation on labour trafficking is the need of the hour. In the
case of interstate migration, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1978 requires
major amendments. Serious efforts are required on the part of the government to
plug loopholes and punish corrupt practices particularly in existing control
mechanisms. Worker-friendly measures in raising awareness and providing
shelters and hostels will go a long way in minimising trafficking for domestic
work.
The National Domestic Workers’ Policy,
which is now before Cabinet for approval, is a comprehensive document which
highlights measures to safeguard the rights of domestic workers and provide
social security for them in accordance with the ILO Domestic Work Convention,
2011 (No. 189).It could eventually lead to the framing of comprehensive
legislation on domestic work. Worker-friendly, gender-sensitive bi-lateral
arrangements with host country governments could also facilitate decent and safe
migration for women workers.
1. INTRODUCTION
The demand for domestic
labour is on the increase both within India and abroad. With the rapid
changes in the Indian economy there has been a rise in poor rural women seeking
work in the urban areas with some even venturing abroad. Taking advantage of the information gap between job seekers and
job providers, various players have surfaced as recruitment agents or
‘merchants of labour’ as the International Labour Conference, 2004 on labour
migration termed them. These players were defined as “public and private agents
who move workers over national borders.” At that conference, the ILO tripartite
constituents recognised that “recruitment can play a key role in creating
vulnerabilities in the final employment stage.” They recommended that a
nonbinding, multilateral framework “proposing guidelines and principles for
policies based on best practices and international standards” be developed,
particularly in the area of “licensing and supervision of recruitment and
contracting agencies”.[1]
This recommendation confirmed the shift
away from the monopoly of the State in job placement introduced by the adoption
of the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181). Christiane
Kuptsch (2006) predicted that migrants would gradually reduce their dependence
on private fee-charging recruiters and use more informal networks thereby
forcing governments to change regulations concerning recruitment with the
maturity of the labour flows. She believed that international organizations and
governments could shape the emerging recruitment industry, much like they
shaped the evolving remittances industry. However, this does not seem to be the
case, particularly for unskilled labour, in India, that over the past 25 years
or more has been seeking work within or outside the country and who continue to
be encumbered by procedural requirements and extortionist agent networks.
It is in this context that the ILO mandated
SEWA (Self-employed Women’s Association) to undertake a study focussed on
reducing trafficking of women and girls for domestic work. This baseline study
seeks to obtain an accurate understanding of the risk factors and migration
patterns of women and children at risk of trafficking for domestic work. It
reveals some of the abusive labour practices that domestic workers are
subjected to during recruitment and in employment and makes recommendations
that can help to design direct interventions and promote legitimate and safe
migration of women workers.
According to the National Human Rights
Commission (2002-2003), ninety percent of trafficking in India is
internal. The non-availability of jobs in rural or tribal areas such as
Jharkhand facilitates the continuous supply of women workers to Delhi and other cities. India is also a source and transit route for
trafficking of women and girls going to the Middle East
for domestic work. (D’Souza, 2010) Within this process of migration there are
risks particularly of deceptive recruitment practices or abuses at the hands of
their employers. The exclusion of domestic workers from key protections in
national labour laws, immigration policies that give employers inordinate
control over workers, and the isolation of domestic workers in private homes,
are the main factors that increase their vulnerability to exploitation.
Trafficking is a widely prevalent practice
and is differently understood in different contexts. The Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 2000,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime, known as the Palermo Protocol defines trafficking in persons as:
... the
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by
means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or
of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution
of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services,
slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
On the basis of this definition, operational
indicators of trafficking in human beings have been developed by the ILO and
the European Commission in 2009 on the basis of a survey of experts. These
indicators provide means to distinguish between those that successfully
migrate, exploited migrants (exploitation without deception or coercion),
victims of deception and exploitation (without coercion) and victims of
trafficking for forced labour (deception, exploitation and coercion).
The ILO Forced Labour Convention 1930, (No.29)
defines forced or compulsory labour as “all work or service that is exacted
from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person
has not offered himself [or herself] voluntarily.”
Moreover, Article 3 (d) of the Worst Forms
of Child Labour Convention 1999 (No. 182) and Art 3 (e) of its accompanying
Recommendation No. 190 categorise as hazardous, “work under particularly
difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work
where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer.”
The recent ILO Convention No. 189 calls for
Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Article 3 of it specifically states that “each
member shall take measures to ensure the effective promotion and protection of
the human rights of all domestic workers… and take the measures set out in the
Convention to respect, promote and realise the fundamental principles and
rights at work.” Hence institutional mechanisms to safe guard the rights of
these workers have to be put in place. Understanding the existing problems of
the migrant domestic workers will certainly help evolve a system that is both practical
and effective.
India has
addressed trafficking both directly and indirectly in its Constitution. There
are three Articles among the Fundamental Rights in Part III and Directive
Principles of State Policy in Part IV that address trafficking related issues.
Article 23 of the Fundamental Rights prohibits trafficking in human beings and
all forms of forced labour.
§ Article 29 (e) ensures that the health and strength of individuals
are not abused and that no one is forced by economic necessity to do work
unsuited to their age or strength.
§ Article 29 (f) states that childhood and youth should be protected
against exploitation.
In 2006, the GOI declared domestic work as
hazardous for children thus prohibiting those less than 18 years of age to be
employed as domestics.[3]
Domestic law in India unfortunately lacks a comprehensive
definition of trafficking. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 (ITPA) is
restricted to sex trafficking. The Indian Penal Code 1860 stipulates punishment
for a number of offences not specifically dealt with in the ITPA. There is no
central law on organized crime and India has not ratified the UN
Convention against Translational Organized Crime 2000.
The Ministry of Labour recently developed a
National Policy for Domestic Workers that is awaiting Cabinet approval. This is
a very comprehensive policy for securing the rights of domestic workers and
giving them access to social security. It will hopefully lead to more
comprehensive legislation on domestic work. In April 2012, the Indian Labour
Conference recognised domestic labour as work and several states have declared
minimum wages for domestic workers. Domestic workers have also been included in
the Rashtriya Swasth Bima Yojana (RSBY- a national health insurance
scheme)[4] subsidised by the central and state governments. Some states have
created Welfare Boards for domestic workers.
While the GOI is moving ahead to bring
domestic workers within the ambit of legislation and social security filling in
the information gaps is important.
1.1 Methodology
This baseline study carried out over four
and a half months examined two particular migration routes of low-skilled women
seeking domestic work. Whereas these are by far not the only routes, they were selected
from different regions; one being an internal route in northern India from the
state of Jharkhand to New Delhi and the other an emigration route in southern
India from the state of Kerala to the Arab countries. These routes were chosen
because they are the most frequented migration routes although very little
official data actually exists. The study includes new data gathered through semi-structured
interviews with migrant domestic workers, detailed case studies of some, as
well as informal interviews with government officials and police officers,
employers of migrant domestic workers, placement agents and representatives of organizations
that deal with issues relating to domestic workers – 143 respondents in total.
The workers interviewed are distributed as
follows:
§ Twenty-five potential migrant workers from Kerala departing for the
Arab countries and 25 workers who have returned to Kerala from these countries
in the last two years;
§ Twenty-five migrant workers who have been working in Delhi for at least two
years;
§ Twenty-five potential migrant workers from rural Jharkhand going to
an urban area and 25 workers who had returned to Jharkhand in the last two
years from an urban centre.
Access to currently employed migrant
domestic workers is not easy as the large majority of them are live-in workers.
Potential migrant workers are also difficult to locate as several of them do
not want to openly say that they plan to migrate for domestic work. The data
collection was facilitated by the fact that it was done by people working with
domestic workers.
Interviews were conducted with employers in
Delhi (2), agents/agency staff (two in Kerala
and three in Delhi),
with domestic workers’ organizations (5), with police and government officials
(6).
2. THE KERALA-ARABIAN GULF MIGRATION ROUTE
According to Zachariah and Rajan (2009),
Kerala is the largest sending State of workers in India. A recent survey shows that
14.6 per cent of emigrants from Kerala are women but only about half of them
move as workers. However, Nair (1999), with a sample only from Trivandrum, found that one out of six returnee
migrants were women and that most of them were engaged in menial tasks.
Interviews of 50 unskilled women who have
returned from or desire to go to an Arab country to work gives us an
understanding of the difficulties they encounter.
2.1 Returnees
2.1.1 Profile of returnees
There are several push factors that drive
women to migrate for work, the most important being the need to earn more
money. Whereas in Kerala the money earned is used to pay dowries for daughters
or to repay debts, in Jharkhand it is for mere survival. In the two samples of
returned and potential female emigrants, 88 per cent and 84 per cent of them
respectively stated that higher wages was the main reason to seek work abroad.
The study reveals that this is particularly the case for single women heads of
households. In both samples of returned and aspiring migrants, there were a
significant number of widowed and separated women & 44 per cent among the returnees and 60 per cent among potential
migrants. Husbands deserting wives is a growing phenomenon in Kerala and single
mothers are under pressure to fulfil the aspirations of their daughters to
study further or to marry men who expect large dowries.
Despite Kerala being a state with high
literacy rates, 56 per cent of the returned migrants interviewed had received no
formal education, 32 per cent had only a primary education and 12 per cent a
secondary education. Levels of education were higher among potential migrants:
only 8 per cent of them had received no formal education, 60 per cent a primary
education only, 24 per cent had attended secondary school and 8 per cent higher
secondary school. The lack of vocational skills and work opportunities force
women into domestic work and their low levels of education influence the way
women are treated and cheated.
Several of the returned migrants
interviewed (68 per cent) had been engaged in some income generating work
before migrating. Upon return, there was a shift in their occupations – 42 per
cent of them were not employed as half of these expected to go abroad again; none
of them went back to agriculture and the majority were engaged in domestic work
in Kerala or were self-employed as tailors. Among the potential emigrants, 40
per cent of them were domestic workers, 24 per cent of them were self-employed
either producing goods to sell or doing tailoring, 16 per cent of them did
other wage work, some as part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme
(NREGA) of the government and 8 per cent worked in agriculture.
Among those respondents who had returned
from the Gulf, 48 per cent of them came from small households of less than four
persons, an equal number came from households of four to seven persons and just
one from a larger household. In contrast, 60 per cent of those who intended to
emigrate were from small households. This indicates that the nuclear family is
increasingly under pressure to survive economically, forcing mothers to migrate
for work. In both groups, around 80 per cent came from families in which other
members had also emigrated for work, often a close relative such as a sister or
brother.
2.1.2 Emigration history
Among the returned migrants, 20 per cent of
them were below the age of 25 when they arrived in the host country for the
first time, 44 per cent were between 25 and 30 and the rest were older, one of
them being above 40. Thus, the majority of them emigrated when they were under
the prescribed minimum age of 30 years. Thirty-two per cent of them went abroad
only once, while 12 per cent went twice, 52 per cent thrice and 4 per cent four
times.
Table 1. Successive destinations of
workers
|
Country
|
Number
|
Per cent
|
|
Saudi
Arabia, UAE, Qatar
|
5
|
20
|
|
UAE, Oman(Muscat), Kuwait
|
3
|
12
|
|
Saudi
Arabia &Oman (Muscat)
|
2
|
8
|
|
Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain
|
2
|
8
|
|
Dubai, Qatar, Iran
|
2
|
8
|
|
Doha
|
1
|
4
|
|
Kuwait, Qatar,
UAE
|
1
|
4
|
|
Oman (Muscat), Kuwait
|
1
|
4
|
|
NA
|
8
|
32
|
|
TOTAL
|
25
|
100
|
Table 2. Reasons for choice of
country
|
Reason cited
|
Number
|
Per
cent
|
|
Reliable person was taking them
|
9
|
36
|
|
Relative/friend was there
|
8
|
32
|
|
Heard the wages were good
|
4
|
16
|
|
Other reason (newspaper or agent)
|
3
|
12
|
|
Group was going from the area
|
1
|
4
|
|
Total
|
25
|
100
|
The majority of returnees interviewed (52
per cent) had found work through agents, 32 per cent through relatives and 16
per cent through friends. While a few had been influenced by information in the
news papers, 68 per cent of them had got in touch with agents through
relatives. All the agents except one were men and most of them were not located
near the homes of the emigrants. Whereas many women knew the actual location of
the agents, 20 per cent of them had only contacted them on the phone and did
not know anything more about them. While most women had been helped by others
through these procedures, especially the first time, there were some who
managed them on their own, going alone to meet agents in other places, handing
over the money etc. Several of them knowingly took great risks.
Table 3. Payments made for services
rendered
|
Amount paid
Indian rupees (INR)*
|
Number
|
Percent
|
|
No payment
|
5
|
20
|
|
Below 15000
|
1
|
4
|
|
15000-20000
|
7
|
28
|
|
20000-25000
|
8
|
32
|
|
25000-30000
|
2
|
8
|
|
Above 40000
|
2
|
8
|
|
Total
*1 USD=45 INR (2011)
|
25
|
100
|
It is significant that 20 per cent of the
respondents did not pay anything to go abroad. Whereas 68 per cent of them paid
the money to agents, 12 per cent paid a relative who arranged their travel. The
amounts paid for travel indicate that, like agents, relatives also charge for
their services since a one-way air ticket to any of these countries costs less
than INR 10,000 (USD 222). To cover their travel costs, 36 per cent of returnees
had sold their jewels, 32 per cent had borrowed money and the rest had managed
to save enough on their own.
Surprisingly, none of the respondents were
asked to produce the mandated work contract which means that none of them had
actually got the required emigration clearance.[5] The four who were taken across by employers had signed some papers but
could not describe their contents.[6] None of them, except two who went through their relatives, were
told what to expect at the other end. The majority therefore were ‘pushed’[7] through at emigration and were thus undocumented emigrants. The
majority of them were made to hand over their passports to the agents, 40 per
cent of them said they had to do forced labour during the recruitment phase and
even have forced sex with the agent or the middlemen. Two women had to go to Bombay to meet agents
there and were made to work in their homes, cooking for them for three weeks.
Two others were taken to Mumbai and forced to sleep with other men. They were
threatened when they resisted.
2.1.3 Travel experiences
Whereas 40 per cent of these women had to
travel by train to the airport from which they boarded their flight, the rest
of them had left directly by air from a city in Kerala. Seventy-two per cent of
them had travelled directly to their destination while the rest of them had had
to stay en route from a week to a month. As many as 40 per cent of them
were not told in advance about the route they would take and did not know what
to expect.
Whereas 52 per cent of them were not
accompanied by anyone on the journey, 16 per cent were accompanied by the
employer, 16 per cent by relatives, and 16 per cent by other workers. Besides, 28
per cent of them did not have their travel documents with them. The fact that
such a large number went illegally on their own means that the informal
networks are so well organized that they manage to ‘push’ them across
successfully.
On arriving at the port of destination 96
per cent of them were met at the airport, in most cases by strangers, only one
of them was not picked up. She remained at the airport for two days before
reporting to the airport authorities. Two days later her Arab sponsor fetched
her. She described the harrowing anxiety she experienced. The stories of the
women from this point onwards are varied and reveal how the placement chain
works. Those who were taken across by relatives and who had not paid any money
went directly to the employer. The others went to houses maintained mostly by
female agents, and in some cases by male agents with a female supervisor.
The
family – agent connection
Three women from Trivandrum
went to Dubai with the help of a relative, John,
who worked in Kuwait.
He directed these women to a local person whom they did not know earlier. This
person charged them INR 50,000 (USD 1,111) each to arrange for their passports,
tickets and visas. When they reached Dubai,
they were received by another unknown person who took them to a house, run by a
Keralite woman, in which there were several other workers. The local Arabs came
there to recruit the women of their choice. The woman agent translated the
employer’s requirements to the migrants before they went to their place of
work. They learned that their salary of INR 5,000 (USD 111) per month (in 2006)
would be paid through the agent and the first three months’ salary would go to
John who had put them in touch with the agent in Trivandrum. This they did not know in
advance. They were told that if the employer did not like them, they would be
brought back to this agent.
2.1.4 Working conditions
The majority of women surveyed for the
study migrated for work with a very minimal understanding of their working
conditions that were communicated to them orally. They were told that the
nature of the work was domestic labour but no details were given about the
working hours, the exact types of household duties, days off etc. They were
cautioned about being dependent on the employer who had provided the visa. In
the employer’s home, 64 per cent of them had several tasks such as cooking,
cleaning, gardening, car washing and taking care of the animals, whereas the
others did more specific jobs like cooking, child care or looking after the
sick only.
Those that were taken across by the
employer, (16 per cent) had signed a contract when they started work but were
not able to explain the contents of the contract. In fact, these were probably
not work contracts but documents for obtaining a visa as they could have gone
as family members and not as workers. But this could not be ascertained.
There were major differences between the
information given to the workers in advance and the situation they were put in.
The majority of them said that the work and conditions of payment and living
were worse than what they had been told. Indeed, 12 per cent were even taken to
a different country. While 48 per cent of them got the payment they were
promised and were allowed to leave after two years as agreed, 52 per cent of
them had deductions made from their salaries of which they were not informed
earlier. This was the money that finally went to pay their relatives and others
who had got them their visas. So despite a significant number saying that they
paid nothing to go abroad, the deductions in their salaries were made
clandestinely by relatives. As many as 92 per cent said they had no choice but
to accept whatever they got since they were in a foreign country and in need of
protection. Some of them could not keep their passports and the others had to
keep to the agreements they had made with the agents to work for at least two
years even if they were exploited and abused. There were instances where
exploitative employers registered false criminal cases against the domestic
worker.
The Kasargod Embassy
Jameela (50), from Mallapuram, had no idea about her
rights. She went abroad through an agent and was placed for work. She worked
from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., cooking, cleaning and ironing for the family and their
guests. If things were not done well, she was rudely scolded. She was given
only leftovers for food and could eat only when she managed to find the time.
When she was sick with fever and did not work, a week’s wages were deducted.
She was not allowed to talk to other workers in the house.
There was an old man she had to attend to – giving medication
on time and taking him to the toilet. He used to harass her physically. One of
the children was mentally retarded and used to throw things at her. The lady
employer slapped her a few times when unsatisfied with her work. She tolerated
this for a year, since she had paid a lot for her visa and needed to earn money
for her family.
Then she met another Keralite maid who had accompanied
a visitor to the house. She told her about a possible escape route through a
place called the ‘embassy’.[8]
Jameela called them and, after two days, she picked up the courage to
leave the house, call a taxi and go to the ‘embassy’. She was taken in by a man
and given place to stay. There were other women there too. She stayed there for
a week and was then taken to the airport and sent home with another passport.
She knew there was a police complaint against her.
All, except one, of the migrant domestic
workers interviewed faced problems at work and had a series of restrictions imposed
on them.
Table 4. Restrictions placed on the
workers
|
|
Number
|
Per cent
|
|
Not allowed to go outside the house
|
12
|
48
|
|
Not allowed to talk to other workers
|
7
|
28
|
|
No permission to make own food or go
outside
|
2
|
8
|
|
No leave
|
2
|
8
|
|
No permission to make their own food
|
1
|
4
|
|
Total
|
24
|
96
|
Besides these restrictions, there were
other pressures indicative of forced labour & 76 per cent of them had been forced to work overtime. They felt
they could not refuse because they were at the mercy of their sponsor. Besides,
they were threatened in different ways including loss of wages if they refused.
Only two of them (8 per cent) had their passports in their possession as they
had gone on a free visa while 92 per cent of them had handed over their
passports to their employers. They had all taken for granted that this was the
norm and had not asked when and how they would get their passports back. Except
for one, none of them were free to leave the employer. They felt very insecure,
as they thought that they could be pursued by the police, put in jail and may
lose their passports permanently.
On the positive side, all of them were able
to contact their families either on the phone or by post and 96 per cent of
them were able to send money back to their families either through the bank,
through friends or relatives or by money order. Moreover, in the case of 80 per
cent of them, their families relied totally on their remittances.
The households the women worked in were
generally large & 60 per cent
of them had worked in households of 4 to 7 members, 12 per cent in those of 8
to10 members, and 28 per cent in households of more than 10 members. The
employers were professionals, government employees, police officers or business
people. While 28 per cent of the returnees felt they were treated kindly, 44
per cent of them said they were treated very rudely, and the rest said that
their employers were sometimes rude and sometimes kind. The majority of them
(72 per cent) said that they received sufficient food while the rest did not
and 76 per cent said they were paid on time while the others were not. The
majority of them had heard stories of others being overworked, unpaid, very
badly treated and even beaten, and in some cases sexually harassed.
While 48 per cent of them felt that they
had no major problems and therefore did not feel the need for help, one said
that she would approach the pravasi organization in case she needed
assistance. Others felt they could rely on their relatives and friends who had
advised them to go there and one even said she would seek help from the agent.
There was a small group that was more vocal and said that domestic workers were
treated so badly that the government should do something about it. Some felt
that there was really no appellate body when something goes wrong. Instead, in
some cases, well-intentioned individuals respond to the needs of workers. They
were aware that they are exploited both by the agents and the employers and
that it is they who are at the losing end despite working so hard and spending
so much money. They did not know that they were actually illegal migrants.
In case of accident...
Saleema, from Mananthawadi, emigrated for the first
time in 1999 when she was 25 years old with a passport on which her age was
stated as 32. Since then, she had worked in several places – Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Bahrain and lastly Dubai. Although her
travel arrangements were made by relatives, she had paid INR 25,000 (USD 555)
initially and finally INR 75,000 (USD 1,665). It was in Dubai that she met with an accident and hurt
her foot. The employer had her admitted in the Government hospital and then
deserted her. She had to fend for herself. It was there that she came across a
social service organization called Sneha Taalvara that publicised her case
through the media, thus forcing the employer to pay her compensation. After
three months spent in the hospital, it took three months more for her to walk
normally. The employer was obliged to pay for her return ticket home. But by
that time her visa had expired and when she went to board her flight she was
put in jail for a month and a half. Once again the organization helped her to
get another ticket to go home.
Although Saleema understands that all is not well for
women who emigrate, she is totally unaware of the fact that there is an
underground placement network. She knows that she has to be protected since she
pays for her visas and does honest work. She knows many who have returned like
her. She called a meeting of these women to encourage them to join the welfare
scheme called Santhwana created by NORKA Roots for migrants that provides
financial assistance to returnees in distress.
2.1.5 Response to harassment
While the majority of those interviewed did
not report excessive harassment, 5 of them (20 per cent) did. Three of these
actually ran away because of the difficult working conditions & two went back to the agent and one took shelter with relatives. Of
the two who went to the agent, one was placed in another house and the agent was
able to get the employer to pay a part of the wages due to the other as well as
a part of her return ticket. She was very disillusioned by the whole
experience. The one who stayed with some relatives was able to earn more money
through clandestine work but knew this was risky because she had overstayed.
Finally, one day when a moratorium was announced, she managed to leave without
major hassles as the ‘embassy’ gave her back her passport. In all these cases,
it is mainly the informal Keralite network that helps the workers through the
fake ‘Kasargod Embassy’ and not the Indian Embassy.
One of the workers was sexually abused by a
young man of the household. When she complained to the lady of the house, she
laughed saying he was only a boy. The worker used to hide herself whenever the
young man came into the work area but she did not always succeed. He used to
tease and touch her. When she rebuked him, he used to respond playfully. She
said she could not leave despite this constant harassment because she needed
money to get her daughter married.
One of them who had worked on a free visa
was harassed by the police as she did not work in the place for which the visa
was issued. She managed to escape but lived in constant fear although there
were other Keralites who were willing to bail her out. As she was a good cook,
she was able to make enough money working on an hourly basis. But she also had
to grease the palms of the men who gave her protection. Then she befriended a
man from Kerala with whom she lived. She was finally forced to leave the
country and will not be able to return to Abu
Dhabi again.
Interestingly, most women who return from
the Gulf do not reveal the hardships they face abroad to others. They tend to
play down the difficulties and are willing to go again hoping they will not be
unlucky. Theresa, for instance, who had faced great harassment from the agent
and was forced into prostitution from which she escaped, was still prepared to
give it another try. This is a contradiction as the wages they receive abroad
are not that much higher than the wages they receive in Kerala. Moreover, while
the majority of domestic workers in Kerala refuse to be live-in workers, as
they feel they have domestic responsibilities, they have no qualms about
emigrating. Whenever they get an opportunity to migrate, they hurriedly make arrangements
to put their children into hostels or orphanages, get the money somehow and
leave.
Hence, there are still many women who
intend to migrate although the numbers are considerably reduced.
2.2 Potential migrants
2.2.1 Profile of potential migrants
Of the 25 women interviewed, the majority
were working & 40 per cent
of them were domestic workers, 24 per cent were self employed mainly as
tailors, 16 per cent of them did other wage work - some under the NREGA and 8
per cent worked in agriculture. The remaining 12 per cent that did not work
were planning to go abroad because there were no job opportunities at home.
Except for one, none of the potential migrants interviewed had worked abroad
earlier.
2.2.2 Migration plans
While 16 per cent of the respondents were
planning to migrate within the coming three months, the large majority (72 per
cent) were planning to migrate within the next 3 to 6 months and a few within
the coming year. The majority of them had been encouraged to go abroad by their
friends and relatives who would provide them with information and assist with their
visas. Another 28 per cent had decided to go abroad on their own and one of
them was trying to join her husband. 36 per cent of these women also knew
agents who could get them across. Except for one of them, the others knew where
they would like to go, some of them having only one preference and a few having
two as indicated in the table below.
Table 5. Preferred country of destination (per cent).
|
Country
|
1st choice
|
2nd choice
|
|
Saudi Arabia
|
28
|
-
|
|
UAE
|
20
|
4
|
|
Oman
|
20
|
-
|
|
Kuwait
|
12
|
4
|
|
Qatar
|
8
|
-
|
|
Bahrain
|
4
|
8
|
|
Not sure yet
|
8
|
24
|
|
No option
|
|
60
|
2.2.3 Preparedness for emigration
Except for one, they did not know exactly how
much they would have to pay to go abroad to work. Two of them who were going
through relatives said they wouldn’t have to pay any money, 48 per cent of them
said it would be between INR 30,000 (USD 666) and INR 50,000 (USD 1,111), 20
per cent said it would be more than INR 50,000 (USD1,111) and another 20 per
cent said it would be less than INR 30,000 (USD 666). Of these, 16 per cent of
them had their own money to meet this expense and 12 per cent would sell some
of their jewellery to raise it, but all the others said they would borrow the
money or at least a part of it. While 36 per cent said they would take a bank
loan, 28 per cent said they would borrow from relatives and friends and another
24 per cent proposed to get assistance from their micro credit groups. Except
for 12 per cent of them, the others also knew that they would have to pay
interest ranging from 5 per cent for those who would borrow from their micro
credit groups to 20 per cent for those who would borrow from banks or money
lenders. While 44 per cent of them had calculated approximately how long it
would take them to repay the loans, the rest of them had not.
The majority of them, (80 per cent) knew
that they needed a valid passport to travel and 64 per cent of them knew that
they needed a visa. Interestingly, 44 per cent of them also knew that they
required a contract if they went with an employer and 12 per cent said they
needed a work permit. The majority of them knew that they needed a work
contract in order to emigrate (78 per cent).
The existing mandatory work contracts only
give details of the employer, the wages and the repatriation requirements. But
a good number of the workers felt that such contracts should contain more
information as indicated below.
Table 6. Contents of contracts expected by workers (per cent).
|
|
Yes
|
Don’t Know
|
|
Nature of work
|
80
|
20
|
|
Housing / Accommodation
|
76
|
24
|
|
Location of the employer
|
68
|
32
|
|
Number of hours of work per day
|
64
|
36
|
|
Number of
leave days
|
56
|
44
|
|
Salary
|
52
|
48
|
|
Duration of employment
|
52
|
48
|
|
Return airfare
|
40
|
60
|
|
Provision that migrant workers can retain
their identity or travel documents
|
20
|
80
|
|
Medical insurance
|
16
|
84
|
|
Legal status
|
12
|
88
|
|
Other Facilities
|
12
|
88
|
Interestingly, 80 per cent of these workers
were unsure about the right to keep their travel documents with them while 20
per cent of them emphatically said that employers did not have the right to
retain their travel documents. These were the workers who were going abroad
directly with the employer.
Several of these workers had some idea of
the difficulties that domestic workers faced abroad – not getting the wages
promised, long working hours, being ill treated and even sexually harassed, yet
these risks did not deter them. While 20 per cent of them did not know what
they would do if they faced any problems abroad, only 8 per cent of them said
that they would go to the Indian Embassy, 28 per cent of them said they would
refer back to the agent while 28 per cent of them said they would seek refuge
from their relatives or friends that were there. 16 per cent of them thought
that they could go to the police. None of these workers were aware of the
various schemes and welfare funds of the government for workers in distress.
Even if many of these women were confident
about being taken abroad by relatives, they are aware that they have to finally
get the assistance of agents who help them to migrate. But 72 per cent of these
women did not know that only recruiting agents that are registered under the
Emigration Act 1983 are permitted to recruit workers for overseas employment
while 24 per cent of them were aware of this. This latter group comprised those
who also knew other women who were taken abroad by employers directly.
It was revealing that while 96 per cent of
them knew what sexual harassment implied, 80 per cent of them did not know what
forced labour entailed. They knew that they would be expected to put in long
hours of work and do any work that the employer wanted but had no concept of
what an actual working day should be or under what conditions they should work.
They expected to get decent food and some rest.
Despite the substantial financial
implications for poor women who emigrate in the hope of making some money, the
risks they have to take and the poor treatment meted out to them, the State
does very little or nothing to protect them. The institutional anomalies are
not only discriminatory but dismissive as well.
2.3 The legislative and institutional framework for migration
While unskilled women consider it their
legitimate right to go abroad to work and are under great duress to pay for
this facility, the majority of them are oblivious of the fact that they get
entangled in an illegal venture. Friends and relatives together with placement
agencies play a central role in matching domestic workers with the demand. They
function with varied terms and conditions placed by the employer and in
services offered to the worker and differ considerably in their objectives.
2.3.1 Ministries that control emigration
The management of emigration and its
necessary documentation procedures are currently being handled by three Central
ministries – the Ministry of External Affairs that issues the passports and
manages the functioning of Indian Missions in foreign countries, the MOIA that
regulates emigration and undertakes the responsibility of protection and
welfare of emigrants through the Protector General of Emigrants, and the
Ministry of Home Affairs that monitors the flow of emigrants from the country
at the ports of embarkation. The Indian Emigration Act 1983 and the Indian
Passport Act 1967 define the institutional contours governing emigration from India
Pursuant to the Emigration Act 1983, the
office of the Controller General of Emigrants then in the Ministry of External
Affairs was renamed the Protector General of Emigrants (PGE). The office was
transferred to the Ministry of Labour and attributed new responsibilities and
powers. The protection and welfare of emigrants, along with the regulation of
recruitment practices in the country is now the responsibility of the PGE.
2.3.2 Anomalies in the Emigration Act and procedures
This Emigration Act 1983 aims to safeguard
the interests of migrant contract workers and ensure their welfare. Under the
Act, only recruiting agents registered with the Ministry of Labour can recruit
for overseas employment after obtaining a registration certificate from the PGE.
There are eight offices located in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New
Delhi, Cochin, Trivandrum,
Hyderabad and Chandigarh under the PGE which appoint
private agents for recruitment to various foreign jobs.
The Act, now in its 29th year of
existence, has attracted strong criticism from several quarters due to its
ineffectiveness and weak structure. From the unexplainable delays and
harassment in procedure, to the limited security fee and penalties prescribed for
recruiting agents who default, the Act has always fallen short of the aims it
seeks to address (Menon and Bhushan, 2010). Amended several times, most
recently in 2009, there are several provisions that still require revision if
this piece of legislation is to be made more emigrant-friendly.
While the GOI has realized that the
institutional framework created by the Emigration Act is ineffective and lacks
coherent legal, administrative and policy structures necessary to implement it,
there is little or no acknowledgement that the existing framework discriminates
against ‘low-skilled’ emigrants from the country in general and ‘low-skilled’
women migrants in particular. The Act does not exempt any citizen from getting
emigration clearance but divides them into two categories: low-skilled migrants
whose passports are marked Emigration Check Required (ECR) and others. Ostensibly,
this is done in order to protect these migrants. However, it offers nothing
substantial by way of protection to ‘low-skilled’ emigrants from the country in
general and ‘low-skilled’ women migrants in particular. In fact, it prohibits
the movement of specific categories of women – especially single, uneducated,
domestic workers below the age of 30.
...it is
this discriminatory state intervention that has served to produce and sustain a
form of ‘controlled informality’ in the emigration process, a regulatory
impasse that promotes the use of informal, largely unauthorized agents and
procedures and indirect routes of acquiring clearance. This takes the form of a
shadow institutional space and a powerful parallel economy with an extensive
network across India and the
Middle East that serves to replicate the
functions of the State. Unauthorized agents not only organize emigration
clearance, in the case of applicants who may not have the required
qualifications, but, in association with state officials at airports, also
manage ‘pushing’ i.e., sending women workers through without the requisite
clearance.
(Kodoth and Varghese, 2011)
According to the Protector of Emigration
(PoE) – Kochi,
his office has very clear instructions regarding the granting of clearance to
those passport holders who require emigration clearance and domestic workers
come under this category. This clearance is given only if the worker is above
30 years of age and has a valid contract of work which includes the salary, the
repatriation details, the employer’s details, etc. This ensures that the worker
gets all the necessary assistance from the Indian embassy whenever necessary.
At present, people who require clearance can register on-line and the clearance
sticker is produced from the on-line data. Hence there can be no tampering with
it. However, he is also aware that several domestic workers go to work abroad
illegally without this clearance as they are ‘pushed’ through Immigration at
the airport.
One reason for this is the lack of
inter-ministerial coordination - the PoE comes under the MOIA whereas the Bureau
of Immigration comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs which keeps the data concerning
all those who migrate. The MOIA does not have any comprehensive data as it is
not expected to have information on people who have ECNR passports. It only has
a record of people who require clearance with ECR passports. As most of the
workers who require the ECR clearance are low skilled, poor women who are unable to secure the work contracts
before applying for the clearance they are thereby at the mercy of unregistered
agents who ‘push’ them through as ECNR emigrants, thereby absolving the state
of its responsibility to also protect them. These agents while making large
sums of money in the process, seem to have a more paternal approach with the
workers who in return put their total trust in them. As workers travel abroad
with visas and have made all due payments, they do not realise that they
actually are illegal emigrants.
2.3.3 Discrimination against unskilled women workers
The frequent changes in government policy
concerning emigration and the restrictions placed on migration of unskilled women
workers has encouraged many to opt for unofficial channels of migration. Policy
changes have been traced by Rajan et al (2009) as follows:
In 1999 the Government of India banned
deployment of Indian workers for employment as housemaids or male domestics in Kuwait. The ban
sought its justification in the post-war turmoil in Kuwait and the resultant harassment
of foreign workers, especially those working in the domestic sector. The
Ministry of Labour later lifted the ban on deployment of male domestics in Kuwait subject to attestation of documents by
the Indian embassy at Kuwait.
But the order, dated 29 May 2000, made “no change in the decision regarding the
deployment of housemaids in Kuwait.”
The Ministry through another order (dated 26 February 2002), as instances of
violation of the earlier order came to its notice, reiterated the decision.
Further, through an order (dated 9 July 2002) the Ministry fixed 30 years as
the minimum age prescribed for deployment of Indian citizens as housemaids in
the Gulf countries, with immediate effect. Through still another order (dated
20 November 2003), in the light of the recommendation of the National
Commission for Women, the Ministry directed all POEs not to give emigration
clearance to women who are below 30 years of age if they are seeking employment
as housemaids/domestic-workers in any foreign country. The newly established
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) brought an air of relief to
prospective women emigrants when it issued its first order in this regard on 4
May 2007. The order lifted the prescribed minimum age criterion for all
household service workers in the case of ECNR countries. However, that order
was not only short-lived but also a prelude for more proscribing interventions
by the Indian Government. Exactly after 17 days, on 21 May 2007, the MOIA came
out with another order directing all the PoEs that “women below the age of 30
years may not be granted emigration clearance, who seek any kind of employment
including employment as housemaids, domestic workers, hair dressers,
beauticians, dancers, stage artists, labourers, general workers, etc. in any
foreign country.
The next ‘reform’ concerning women
emigrants came on 1 Aug 2007, which reiterated that for the protection and
welfare of women emigrants, the age restriction of 30 years would henceforth be
made mandatory in respect of all women emigrants with an ECR passport (by that
time the qualification for getting an ECR passport had been lowered to
Matriculation pass), irrespective of the nature/category of employment. The
order also made a direct employment contract between the worker and the
employer mandatory, which should provide a minimum wage of USD 400 per month
and a pre-paid mobile facility to be provided by the employer to every household
service worker. This order has in effect virtually banned all recruitment of
ECR categories of women by recruiting agents. Every foreign employer recruiting
an Indian woman emigrant must also deposit a security deposit of USD 2,500 in
the form of bank guarantee, with the Indian Mission concerned. The PoE may seek
a copy of the bank guarantee duly attested by the Indian Mission before
granting emigration clearance. Such stringent measures tend to prevent
emigration rather than protect women workers overseas. Consequently, more and
more migrants resort to informal and illegal channels of emigration.
On 12 September 2007, in the face of stiff
opposition from all stakeholders, the Ministry withdrew its order on the
minimum wage and the security deposit, which proved unrealistic at the time. It
had however already had a negative impact on migration of women for unskilled
and semi-skilled work. The recruitment of such categories came to be looked
down upon as indecent. Almost all the credible recruitment agencies had
withdrawn from recruiting unskilled women for overseas jobs and agents that
continue to do so do not recruit openly.
2.3.4 Illegal agent racket
An article in The Hindu on October 16, 2010
reported on the visa racket and how undocumented domestic workers are referred
to a fake embassy – the ‘Kasargod Embassy’ to help them when in distress. Several
such reports appear in the press after disasters such as the plane crash in
Mangalore in 2009 when some of the victims returning from work abroad were found
travelling on passports with false names (Radhakrishnan, 2010). The large-scale
corruption that exists is therefore no secret.
In their study Rajan et al (2009) conclude
that
Along with the mounting labour emigration,
overseas recruitment practices have become increasingly complicated and pose a
formidable challenge to the government and its regulatory organs. The process
of recruitment allegedly involves corruption and exploitation on an enormous
scale. In fact, the GOI has admitted that the system it had put in place to
regulate and streamline the emigration process has failed to generate the
desired results. On the other hand, this administrative apparatus itself has
accentuated corruption as a result of the nexus formed between erring
government officials and recruitment agencies, leading to increasing
exploitation of the poor.
Our case studies reveal that regardless of
the risks involved, those women desirous of emigrating have great faith in
informal networks as they are more supportive than the government mechanism.
2.3.5 Ambiguous status of migrant women workers
While bans and restrictions to prevent
women workers from falling into abusive situations only drive the process
underground, it is obvious that their security and rights depend largely on appropriate
and enforceable legal frameworks in the receiving countries (Chammartin, 2004: p.
22). Labour laws in most Arab League States do not cover women migrant domestic
workers hence they are not considered employees, and “the specificity of their
employment relationship is not addressed in national legislation” (Ibid: p. 17).
Significantly, in India
too there has been a lack of clarity regarding the status of domestic workers
as workers and it is only in recent years that they have been recognised. But
there is still no legislation in place to guarantee them their rights and
social protection.
State policy and social regulation have had
serious consequence for the prospects of emigrant domestic workers in the host
country. Sabban (2004 pp. 89 and 95) points out that the position of foreign
domestic workers in the labour market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is
linked to the status of women in the sending countries. Up to the 1970s,
immigrant domestic workers in the UAE were mostly from India, drawing on a long history of cultural and
economic relations, but since the late 1970s and 1990s, the Philippines and Indonesia respectively have grown
as source countries. More recently, the numbers of Filipina and Indian domestic
workers was “not growing at the same pace as before”, beginning a trend of
Indonesians replacing Filipinas in the middle and upper income households and
Ethiopians replacing Indians in the lower income households. Ethnicity and
nationality are significant determinants of wage rates of domestic workers in
the Gulf States.
The study conducted for the ILO in four
Arab League States indicates that the exploitative and stressful working
conditions of domestic workers are facilitated by the absence of a clear and
just legal framework (Esim and Smith, eds., 2004). In particular, the Kafala
(sponsorship) system keeps the domestic worker at the mercy of the sponsor /
employer, for she does not have the right to change her job unless she leaves
the country. Also the employer usually takes possession of her legal documents,
depriving her of any bargaining power (Godfrey et al, 2004; Sabban, 2004).
The state needs to provide effective
safeguards against exploitation and abuse alongside incentivizing legal
emigration through social protection coverage. Problems with the legal
framework generate illegal migration and related problems even where sending
states are strongly supportive of migrants as is the case with the Philippines and Indonesia. The Philippines
embassies in the Gulf countries mediate in disputes, refer cases to the courts
and bear the expenses of litigation and where possible attempt, in association
with recruitment agencies, to find new employers. In contrast, the attitude of
the Indian embassies towards domestic workers is described as ‘negative’,
‘passive’ or ‘reluctant’. Al-Najjar (2004: p. 38) suggests that their attitude
stems from a sense of shame over the issue of emigrant domestic workers, which
is shared by influential sections of academics and the public on the one hand
and on the other, the Indian Government’s lack of a clear policy on domestic
workers and the embassy’s reluctance to confront local influential families in
the Gulf who employ migrant domestic workers.
Several studies (Sabban, 2004; Pattadath, 2008)
highlight the gender and labour discrimination that domestic workers face.
Rajan et al (2009) suggest there is need to probe the implication of gender in
the prevalent understanding of sovereignty as discussions on a new migration
policy in 2008 opined that gender was not a serious concern, a) as women’s
migration had gained momentum in the higher education categories and b) because
the flow in depressed categories such as domestic work was on the decline. The
latter statement was substantiated by the decline in numbers of women
emigrating in the ECR category despite evidence that it is likely to under-enumerate
them because of the use of illegal channels. Further, a survey of domestic
workers in Kuwait in 2001 showed that 14 out of 43 Indian women workers had
education of up to high school or above (Godfrey et al., 2004) indicating that
they may migrate in the ECNR category as well. Thus there is need for a gender
perspective in a broader sense.
2.3.6 Recommendations for correcting institutional anomalies
Justice K Sukumaran (2005) opines that the
Emigration Act in its current form is primarily regulatory in nature and consequently
does not provide the much needed legislative basis for the promotional and
welfare considerations related to migration in general. There is a lack of
communication and effective coordination among the various stakeholders: the
two Ministries, the PoE, recruiting agents and Indian missions in the
destination countries. The Act is also silent on the role played by the State
Governments. Emigrations being a subject on the Union list of legislative
powers, the State governments do not have the power to legislate in this area.
Consequently, the State police do not act in a timely and efficient manner in
cases of reported illegal migration due to this. The inadequacy of bank
guarantees, lack of control over the recruiting agents or employers etc. pose
added problems.
The Indian Overseas Workers’ Welfare Fund
is meant to provide the necessary funds to concerned embassies or high commissions
for arranging return tickets for workers who are stranded in foreign countries,
for assistance to migrant workers who become partially or permanently disabled or
for transportation of dead bodies. It is operational at Indian Missions in
about 17 countries for which emigration clearance is required. Such workers’
welfare schemes would be more effective if all emigrant workers are entitled to
them. The GOI also has an Overseas Workers’ Resource Centre (OWRC) to provide
information and assistance to intending emigrants and the family members of
overseas workers on all aspects of overseas employment. Eighteen Migrant
Resource Centres have also been set up but provide services only to those
workers who have legal contracts. None of these centres assist or provide
information on skill up-gradation required of the workers. Neither do they
inform them of the laws in the host countries, or provide minimum language
skills that would help workers face the new situation or defend themselves
against possible accusations and law suits against them.
India,
despite being the recipient of large remittances from its diaspora has not been
proactive in protecting the citizens who generate them. Welfare officers should
be posted both at the Missions in the destination countries as well as at
various local centres within India to solve problems faced by emigrants and communicate
these to the Ministry for follow-up.
The standard work contract that workers
presently require for emigration clearance is very minimal. A model work contract
should be drawn up so as to be universally applicable to all employers seeking
to recruit workers from India.
This model contract should contain certain basic mandatory provisions such as
salary, hours of work, overtime pay, conditions for termination of contract and
provision of other benefits such as medical check up, legal services,
compensation etc. The model contract should be flexible enough to allow
adaptation to the labour laws of the receiving countries.
The particular needs of women migrant
workers should be specifically addressed. The division between persons
requiring emigration clearance and those that do not require it should be done
away with. If State governments are given more powers within the framework of
the Emigration Act, they would assist in legal placement of unskilled workers. They
would also be able to develop more constructive programmes to assist them with
better certified skills. It is crucial that the minimum age for women to
migrate should be revisited in consultation with the National Women’s
Commission that has also developed a good draft Bill on domestic work in India.
2.4 Mitigation attempts
2.4.1 In Kerala
In order to assist emigration processes in
Kerala where the number of emigrants is large, Norka-Roots (Non Resident Keralite
Affairs Department) of the Government of Kerala was created in 2002. It has
three offices in the State in Trivandrum, Kochi and Kozhikode and two outside it, in New Delhi and Mumbai.
It has an integrated programme for overseas
job seekers. It conducts pre-migration and pre-departure orientation programmes
twice a year in each district, developing awareness among aspirants about the
general job situation abroad and imparting essential information relating to
passports, visas, emigration rules, employment contract laws, travel
formalities etc. It is also an authorised agency for manpower recruitment by
the GOI. It has an online platform for employers to hire quality talent[9] as well as a 16-hour call centre with a toll free number. It is
noteworthy that even though the Overseas Department at NORKA is authorised to recruit
domestic workers, they are reluctant to do so because domestic workers are not
covered by any protective legislation in the Gulf countries and hence they
cannot obtain legal redress in the destination country.
Faced with numerous issues confronting the
workers, NORKA has a scheme for providing legal assistance to weaker sections
of returnees and another to give assistance to returnees in distress to cover
medical bills, funeral expenses etc. as well as a Karunya scheme to repatriate
deceased workers. NORKA also provides an identity card for those working abroad
with residential permission for more than six months. Such persons are entitled
to accident coverage of INR 200,000 (USD 4,444). In case of harassment, NORKA
assists with repatriation.
There is also a programme called Ujjwala
of the GOI, for rehabilitation of women workers. Nevertheless, very few women
workers are aware of this programme and of procedures to access it.
There is a special Non Resident Indian cell
at the Police headquarters in Trivandrum
to deal with issues of the NRIs. It mainly takes up cases of cheating by
recruiting agents. They say that in the last 9 years they have received
complaints from only 9 domestic workers. Four years ago they had received a
complaint regarding physical harassment and overwork, but as there was no clear
evidence it was not possible for them to pursue the case. They have received no
complaints of sexual harassment. Since the minimum age for migration is 30
years, women below thirty have migrated illegally and hence their cases cannot
be registered. They did not seem concerned with the problems faced by female
migrants.
2.4.2 In Saudi Arabia
More recently, the Saudi government has
taken some steps to improve the situation of migrant domestic workers. For
example, the Ministry of Social Affairs operates a shelter in Riyadh for domestic workers who need
assistance in securing exit visas to return home or in claiming unpaid wages
from their employers. The Ministry of Labor has begun penalizing employers who
have mistreated their workers by barring them from hiring foreign workers in
the future for five years, and sometimes for life.
These reforms point in the right direction
but are not sufficient to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place. The
current system of sponsorship means that an employer has immense power over a
domestic worker because she cannot leave the country or change employers
without his/her consent. Domestic workers are especially at risk of abuse
because they are not covered under the Labor Law and its protections concerning
limits on working hours, weekly days of rest, and overtime pay. Unfortunately,
this deep power imbalance and lack of regulation too often results in exploitation.
The Ministry of Labor has proposed key
reforms to address these issues, but the government has been slow to adopt
them. One proposal is to change the sponsorship system so that a few large
labour agencies would act as foreign workers’ sponsors instead of individual
employers. Such a change would help workers leave abusive employers more
easily, though such agencies would need to be monitored rigorously and are
likely to be more interested in their profits than in the rights of the workers
they recruit.
The Ministry of Labor has also drafted, but
not yet adopted, an annex to the Labor Law 2005 specifying the rights and
duties of domestic workers. If this annex provides domestic workers with equal
rights with all other workers, it could provide a model for the region.
2.4.3 Responses from NGOs
Non-governmental organizations have also
begun to highlight the exploitation that is occurring of unskilled migrants.
Several NGOs working on labour and health have started incorporating the
migrant dimension into their work. The Migrant Workers’ Forum is one example of
an NGO working solely on issues related to migrants particularly on what they
refer to as the ‘feminization of migration’. Their parent organization Caritas (2009) strongly
feels that “if we don’t regulate the sector of migrant domestic workers and
leave them without a safety net, the burden on this group of people will
double. Having no work to maintain the family at home and possibly returning
with empty hands, puts the survival of the family at risk.”
Caritas suggests some key elements that
should be incorporated into regulation frameworks, namely:
§ Safe and affordable recruitment
§ Channels for legal migration of domestic workers
§ Regulation of work by a legal contract which determines duties and
rights of the employees and the employers
§ Responsible States
§ An Ombudsperson for domestic workers.
These have been further elaborated by the
organization. Admission to legal migration channels for domestic workers should
not put an excessive financial and bureaucratic burden on families. Temporary
employment-based visas for migrant domestic workers non-specific to employers
and administered through labour authorities could be an option. Pre-departure
information and counselling should be part of preparation for migration.
The employer/service receiver should get a
well-informed and well-trained employee. The employee in exchange should have a
reliable working agreement, guaranteeing labour rights. Both should be
assisted, by public or private agencies, duly controlled, to ensure the quality
of the working agreement.
The State has the responsibility to care
for people within its territory and the country of origin should provide
support for its citizens. Recruitment, mediating and au-pair agencies should be
effectively controlled and licensed. Receiving states should draft legislation
and or implement it to protect the rights of domestic workers, with a clear
definition of domestic workers’ duties
There should be an independent functionary
in each country with whom domestic workers can file complaints independently,
regardless of their legal status. This Ombudsperson should have the mandate –
in close consultation with the domestic worker – to investigate cases and find
means to solve them via mediation or bringing them to court. According to the
evidence collected, necessary changes in legislation could be made or new
legislation put in place
The Migrant Workers’ Forum in Kerala
organises pre-departure trainings in areas from where there is high migration.
They also work with the families of migrants in order to assist them in case of
difficulties faced by their migrant members or to help them manage their
financial affairs as they are often highly indebted.
2.5 Conclusion
Over 90 per cent of unskilled women workers
who seek work as domestics abroad are cheated. As per the operational
indicators of Human Trafficking developed by the ILO and the European
Commission, they are victims of deception and exploitation. Forty per cent of
them are also victims of forced labour.
Now that the ILO Convention on Domestic
Work, 2011 (No. 189) has come into force, it will be up to the GOI to not only
put the effective protective legislation in place thereby securing the rights
of the women to emigrate but simultaneously to pressure the Arab countries to adopt
local legislative measures so that the workers have a forum for grievance
redress and security of employment abroad.
3. MIGRANT WORKERS ON THE JHARKHAND – DELHI ROUTE
As the demand for domestic workers is great
in India’s capital city of Delhi, the supply of them
is also a lucrative business. All norms of age and conditions of work are
blatantly flouted. With living conditions in the rural areas of several eastern
states in jeopardy, there is a regular stream of migrant workers coming towards
Delhi in search
of greener pastures.
The districts of Gumla and Sintega, in the
state of Jharkhand in east India,
are tribal or adivasi pockets from where a large number of workers go
out in search of work. The region is composed of vast expanses of dry lands and
semi-degraded forest. It is a poorly developed area with few schools, a
hospital and limited means of transport. It is at present under the siege of
Naxalite insurgents. Although the families own a substantial amount of land they
remain at subsistence level with only one rain-fed crop of rice a year and
sometimes a few animals. In the lean period, people survive on what they can
gather from the forest and from work in road construction and in the brick
kilns. They are paid a pittance in cash and some of the payment is still in
kind. The ration shops in the area that sell subsidised basic necessities are
poorly frequented as people have no cash to purchase these. Families are of an
average size of six and each of them has one or more girls and sometimes boys
working outside. With such a large number of migrant workers from these
districts, working elsewhere for the past twenty to thirty years, one would expect
improvements in living standards. But this is not the case. The little money
the migrants earn outside the State just helps their families to survive.
When talking to the families of the
migrants, one realises how little they know about the whereabouts of their
daughters and the work they are engaged in outside. Most of them say they are
in families in Delhi
or Mumbai. None of them seem to know what the girls actually experience there.
Discussions with returned migrants revealed that they too do not feel the need
to share their difficulties, accepting it as their fate. Some harboured resentment
towards their families, others were emotionless. Several of them had returned
to the village to be married off. For them, the cycle will start all over again
– children, invariably a migrant or drunken husband and poverty.
Most of these women and girls moved to the
urban centres through informal contacts. Initially, about 30 years ago, nuns
organised their placement. They worked in rather safe conditions being paid
only INR 200 (USD 4.44) a month which they could take back when they went home
at the end of the year. When they returned to work, they would bring with them
a few of their neighbours who would be placed in some families they knew. So while
the living conditions were safe, the conditions of work & food provided, hours of work and wages were left to the discretion
of the employer. For several of these girls, city life was more attractive than
being at home. They were exposed to different ways and eventually some of them
even found lovers and did not return. This caused alarm in their villages and
news quickly spread about the ‘bad girls’. It made parents reluctant to
continue to send their girls away.
Gradually the demand for domestic workers
in the urban areas increased and people were willing to pay large amounts of
money to get a worker. Seeing the need as a profitable business opportunity,
both men and women from the area began to ‘supply labour’ and take groups of
girls to the city. As living conditions in their place of origin continued to
deteriorate, this became an accepted practice and since young women were going
in groups, parents were willing to send them along, lured by prospects of a
better life elsewhere for their children and some remittances for themselves.
One incident that seems to have impacted on
the local people was the disappearance of 13 girls in 2010 that had been taken
as a group and did not return. This seems to have scared the younger girls who
also intend to go to find work outside. As a result, most of them are now
hesitant to leave Jharkhand but prefer to go to cities like Ranchi
or Dhanbad within the State rather than to distant Delhi or Mumbai.
3.1 Returnees
Interviews were conducted of 25 young women
who had returned to Jharkhand in the last two years after working in Delhi.
3.1.1 Profile of the respondents
Only three of the respondents were from Ranchi, the rest were
from the rural areas. They were spread over a wide age range.
Table
7. Age at the time of the interview
|
|
Number
|
Percent
|
|
Below18
|
2
|
8
|
|
19-24
|
6
|
24
|
|
25-30
|
11
|
44
|
|
30-35
|
5
|
20
|
|
Above35
|
1
|
4
|
|
Total
|
25
|
100
|
When they first migrated, 52 per cent of
the respondents were below the age of 16 and another 28 per cent were below the
age of 18 while the oldest was 30 years old.
At the time of the interview, 64 per cent
of them were married and the rest still unmarried. Twelve per cent of the
married women still had no children. Fifty-six per cent of them came from large
households of five to seven members and 16 per cent from those of eight to ten
members. In only 28 per cent cases were there just three other members in the
household.
Only 28 per cent of them had received no
formal education, 16 per cent had completed high school and the rest were in
between. One of them had also gone for skill training as a security guard after
returning from Delhi
where she had done domestic work. The majority of these respondents (76 per
cent) had family members who were still working outside.
3.1.2 Migration details
Before leaving their areas, 80 percent had
been involved in some independent productive activity or in wage labour.
Table 9. Occupations before and after
migration (per cent)
|
Occupation
|
Before migrating
|
On return
|
|
Agricultural wage work
|
28
|
36
|
|
Student
|
28
|
8
Doing skill
development
|
|
Housework
|
20
|
32
|
|
Construction & other wage work
|
12
|
|
|
Own agriculture
|
8
|
|
|
DW in another city
|
4
|
|
|
Working in a computer centre
|
|
4
|
|
Collecting wood for sale
|
|
4
|
|
Waiting to get married
|
|
4
|
|
In service with a doctor
|
|
8
|
|
Catering and self employed
|
|
4
|
|
Total
|
100
|
100
|
As the workers generally return home on
leave after one or two years, 20 per cent of them had left their place only
once while 28 per cent of them had been twice, 24 per cent had been thrice and
28 per cent had been more than three times to work outside. 80 per cent of them
had been to Delhi while one had been to Bangalore, one to Mumbai
and one to Kolkata.
They had all left their homes for various
reasons the priorities of which are given below.
Table 8. Reasons for leaving the home
(per cent)
|
|
Priority 1
|
Priority 2
|
Priority 3
|
|
To earn more money
|
44
|
24
|
12
|
|
Desire to experience life outside
|
28
|
20
|
4
|
|
Forced by the family to go
|
12
|
8
|
28
|
|
To find better work opportunities
|
12
|
28
|
24
|
|
Had no other skills for work and so went
in for domestic work
|
4
|
8
|
8
|
|
To widen one’s knowledge
|
|
12
|
8
|
Interestingly, 44 per cent of them had chosen
on their own to migrate for work while 36 per cent were sent by parents and the
rest were encouraged by a relative or friend who had already been there. They
had not specifically chosen to go to Delhi
but went there either because most others were going there or because their
relatives or friends took them there.
Whereas the majority had returned to get
married and therefore were presently not earning a living, a substantial number
still went in for agricultural wage work. In general, there seemed to be a
change in their options after being in an urban centre. This could also have to
do with the fact that they had learned to speak Hindi, were more mature and had
more work exposure which helped them to interact with people.
3.1.3 Experiences en route to their destination
As highlighted earlier, more that 50 per
cent of these women were below the age of 16 when they first left their areas. All
of them had travelled by bus to Ranchi (six to
eight hours) and from there by train to Delhi.
Except for one of them, who had to make some unexpected stops, all the others
had gone directly to Delhi.
They were accompanied either by other workers, relatives or friends or the
agents themselves. Only one of them was met in Delhi by somebody she did not
know, some stayed a day with a relative or friend before being placed, others
went to the house of the agent or to convents if they had come through nuns and
a couple to the domestic workers’ cooperative called Nirmala Niketan.
Only 16 per cent had found work through a
female agent/broker whom they had not known personally and who was not from
their local area. The rest had found work through the relatives or friends that
had taken them with them. But none of them had paid any money to either their
friends, relatives or the agent. Except for one who borrowed some money, the
rest had all managed to put together the money for their travel and other
expenses which was between INR 1,500 to 3000 (USD 33.33 to 66.66). In the
1980s, when this wave of migration commenced, things were different to what
they are now. Agents gradually made it a business to only take girls to Delhi and charged money
to the employers for doing so.
From domestic worker to agent
Adriyani went to Delhi
in 1980 when she was 14 years old. She came from a family of five children.
Life was difficult for them as they had only an acre of dry land that did not
produce enough for their needs. Much of the small cash income of the family was
used to pay for the education of one of her older brothers. She looked after a
buffalo that gave them milk. Although they needed money, her father was
reluctant to send her out to work. As one of their friends had apparently
fallen into the trap of prostitution, he knew that girls were cheated. Despite
this, when her friends told Adriyani that there were some nuns in Delhi that trained girls for work there, she joined a
group bound for Delhi.
On reaching Delhi,
she stayed with the nuns where she was given a basic idea about working in a
family, how to clean and do basic cooking and child care. After 15 days she was
placed full-time in a doctor’s home with a salary of INR 400 (USD 8.88) a month
to look after a child. She came back to the nuns on Sundays. She stayed for two
years in this family where she was allowed to learn to read and write, among
other things. Her employer also sent money home to her parents by money order.
When she went home on leave after two years, the doctor paid her train fare and
her wages that she took back home. When she returned after two months, she was placed
in another family.
The next time she returned from leave, she found her
own employer and began to earn more money. She learned that the nuns also took
money from the employer for her placement but was not aware of this earlier.
Each time Adriyani went back to Delhi she took other girls with her whom she
placed for work as she had met other employers who requested workers. She had
worked with a variety of employers including a convent in Saharanpur where she learned needlework and
supervised other women doing it. She explained that placement was now being
done by ‘agents’ who made it a business to only take girls to Delhi and who
charged money to the employers for doing so. Although the parents of the girls
trusted them, they really did not know where the girls were being placed. There
were several cases of harassment, exploitation and even death, but never did
the truth reach home. Nobody wanted to tell the parents how difficult life was
in the city. Some of the young women felt that life was no better at home.
Among these respondents, the majority had
encountered no problems during the recruitment phase but two of them were
forced to work in the house of the agent while awaiting departure and one was
also being forced into sex which she resisted.
3.1.4 Work experience in Delhi
Only eight per cent of these migrants had
signed a contract when they started work. These contracts did not define the
conditions of work but only served to ensure that the worker was bound to work
for that employer for 11 months and that her salary would be paid to the agent.
This was what the girls were told when the agent took them to Delhi. Among those that did not sign any
contract, 44 per cent of them were told orally what they had to do and only one
was informed of her salary. The others did not ask. The majority of them were
involved in cleaning and cooking (68 per cent), in child care (24 per cent),
and a few in just cleaning.
Table 10. Comparison between promises made
and actual conditions of work (per cent)
|
|
No
earlier information
|
Similar
|
Better
|
Worse
|
No
answer
|
|
No. of hours of work
|
88
|
4
|
|
4
|
4
|
|
Annual leave
|
72
|
24
|
|
|
4
|
|
Living conditions
|
64
|
28
|
12
|
8
|
4
|
|
Amount of earnings & regularity of
payment
|
60
|
28
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
Days off
|
60
|
24
|
|
12
|
4
|
|
Location
|
12.0
|
80
|
|
|
4
|
|
Nature of job
|
8.0
|
84
|
-
|
-
|
4
|
The majority of them had been told where
they were going and what they were going to be doing. But besides that, they
had information on their working conditions or even their wages. While half of
them said that they had the freedom not to accept the job, the other half had
no choice mainly because they had agreed to work for one year.
While there were no expectations on the
part of the workers, 56 per cent of them said the employer put no restrictions
on them but only eight per cent of them got two days off a month. Among the
remaining 44 per cent, some were not allowed to go out and talk to other
workers, some could not phone home at all except in the ear shot of the
employer, they could not watch TV, a few of them complained that they did not
get enough food, one felt that she was not trusted as she was permanently
watched and one of them was constantly nagged and scolded.
Seventy-two per cent of them said that they
were not forced to work over time, but when probed, a large number of these
workers had taken it for granted that they had to work 16 to18 hours a day when
they were live-in workers. Twenty-four per cent of them said that they were
forced to work long hours and eight per cent of them said they were forced to
do work that was beyond their strength – moving heavy furniture and the like.
They were harshly scolded and even beaten if they refused. Being young and away
from home it was imperative that they stay in touch with their families. But 16
per cent of them were not allowed to contact their families at all, while some
of them could use the telephone on a restricted basis, twice a month. There
were only 36 per cent of them who were free to do so when they wanted. One of
them had to go to a pay phone outside when she wanted to contact her family.
All these workers were sent out with the
hope of getting more cash incomes. Seventy-six per cent of them were able to
send money back to the family either through friends or by money order. The
rest of them could not as they would be paid only after 11 months of work. In
some cases the agent told them that he had sent the money to the parents but
there was no actual account of this.
Disoriented and miserably home-sick
Navya, who was 15 when she first went to Delhi, could not
communicate with others in the house as she did not know Hindi. She longed for
her home food and was so home sick that she just used to cry in the evenings.
She was scolded by the employer for this although she tried to do all the work
she was given. She was also surprised that houses looked the way they did. She
had no idea about such things and wondered which world she was living in. But
since there were other girls like her in the surroundings, she could sometimes
speak to them when she went downstairs but that was not very often.
Madam woke her up before dawn to help her in the
kitchen. Then she cleaned the house and washed a big pile of dishes. At the end
of the day, she would just drop off to sleep. The relative that had placed her
there came to visit her once in a way but otherwise she had no contact with her
family for the entire year. At the end of the year, when she went home again,
her parents received a lump sum of money from the relative which were her
wages. She recalls that her mother bought two goats with that money. After two
months, she returned to Delhi
with her relative and worked in another home.
In the case of 16 per cent of these
respondents their families relied totally on their earnings, while 12 per cent
said this was not the case. Forty-eight per cent of them felt they could leave
their jobs whenever they wanted; the rest of them could not. The latter were
the younger ones and those that had gone to work for the first time. They said
that they would be threatened both by the employers and the agent if they complained
as they had committed to work for 11 months to two years. While one of them
said the employer was totally dependent on her as there was nobody else in the
house, another was told that she could leave only if she produced a substitute.
For the others, one of them was almost permanently locked inside while another
was always watched by the family and two of them were told that they would not
get any payment at all if they just left. This made them very insecure and
since they did not know where else to go, they felt obliged to accept the
drudgery.
The majority of them had worked with
professionals like doctors, teachers, journalists, government employees and
business people while a couple had worked with retired people who were totally
dependent on them. The majority of the households were small with a maximum of four
members (72 per cent), but there were also a few large ones of up to eight members
and one with ten members. Eighty per cent of them said the employers were kind
to them, gave them sufficient food and paid them on time while the remaining 20
per cent had bad experiences of being treated rudely and with suspicion, did
not get sufficient food and were not paid on time.
3.1.5 Exit routes for those who felt harassed
As the majority of these respondents did
not face any major problems they did not feel the need of support
organizations. But several acknowledged that they had managed to survive
because they had got to know of organizations like Nirmala Niketan and a couple
of other NGOs that assisted migrant domestic workers. For the others they felt
confident that nothing untoward would happen because it was the relatives,
friends, nuns or agents that had taken them there to work. There were just two
who said that they would not know to whom to go in times of trouble. It was
apparent from the responses, that young migrant workers tend to accept any
conditions at first, but they gradually learn to negotiate their own space and
even choose the employers they work with. They are able to broaden their
support networks after a few years.
Nevertheless, they all knew of other
workers who had undergone problems of different kinds like being beaten, forced
into hard labour and even sexually harassed. One wonders whether they had all
undergone such problems themselves but were not willing to say so up front as
they felt ashamed to. Since none of them informed the families about the actual
situation in Delhi
and were interviewed in their homes with others around, they could have felt
restrained.
Some of them emphatically said that it was
very important to have organizations like Nirmala Niketan that could provide
shelter in case they needed to leave an employer and legal help to fight for
their wages and other rights.
Whereas 72 per cent of them had not felt harassed,
the others had managed to get out of difficult situations in different ways.
One of them just did not go back to the same employer after the first 11
months. For the others, they had either left with the help of the agent, the nuns
or their friends. One had run away but was harassed by the agent who had placed
her. She finally got the agent off her back because others threatened her. Two
of them got another job, the other got money to go back home. One of them got
the assistance of Nirmala Niketan to get her due wages fully paid and to make a
police complaint. The two that returned to the village decided not to go back
to the city to work. But one of them felt that she would work again when needed
as there were organizations like Nirmala Niketan that could come to their
assistance.
Vital role of NGOs
Saroj who is now happily married with one child retold
her gruesome story of how at the age of 16, she and her sister were taken to Delhi by a village boy
(Philander), with the consent of their parents. Philander had told their
parents that he would take them to their cousin in Delhi which he did not do. He actually placed
them for work through another placement agency and never met with them again.
For two years, the parents of Seeta and Saroj were not
able to contact their daughters as Philander said they should ask the cousin.
Finally the parents were directed to Nirmala Niketan through other girls from
the area.
Nirmala Niketan was able to confront Philander,
contact the agency and trace Saroj in Janakpuri. They were able to rescue her,
get her wages that had not been paid for two years from the employer and send
her safely home. Saroj did not know where Seeta was and had had no contact with
her. The agency also claimed it did not know. But Nirmala Niketan got the
support of the police and forced the agent to bring the girl to the police
station and hand her over to her father and pay her wages for two years.
With such experiences, 48 per cent of these
women said that they would not recommend that their relatives go to the city to
work. The others who remained optimistic said they would prepare them better to
face the realities there and tell them about their rightful conditions of work
and the means by which they could get help if needed.
3.1.6 Suggestions to ameliorate their conditions.
Only very few of these women had
suggestions about how conditions could improve for them in order to make
migration for work more decent. And still fewer understood the way the present
agent nexus worked and the massive exploitation in the process that had
worsened in the last five to eight years. Whereas they had no suggestions
regarding the exploitative agents, 12 per cent of them suggested that there was
need of more shelter homes in Delhi
so that they could go there when necessary, especially while moving from one
employer to another. They said it was imperative that there should be more
programmes to help the girls before they migrate so that they would know their
rights and organizations like Nirmala Niketan and Chetnanilaya.in Delhi that
would support them in times of need.
3.1.7 The agent nexus
Shockingly, the newspapers in Delhi have a story almost
every week on how harassed domestic workers are rescued or die while fleeing.
Yet there is a steady flow of workers to Delhi and there are over 300 placement
agencies, some very well known and ‘professional’ and others being just a
person with a mobile phone.
One of the better known ones is run by Mr.
Talwar. He was earlier a bank employee and had given up his job to run a
domestic worker and security guard supply agency. He had an office at the ITO
and got girls through regular agents. These agents bring him two or three girls
at a time. For each girl they bring, they are paid INR 10,000 to 12,000 (USD
222 to 267) according to the age and experience of the person. As soon as he
gets a girl, he takes them to a family as he has a long waiting list of people
who are in need. He places the girls directly in the family without any
training. He just talks to them verbally about what they are expected to do and
confirms that they will work for 11 months after which they will get their
salary and a month’s vacation to go home. He assures them that they will be
safe and that if they have any problem they can contact him. He tells them the
sum of money they will receive as wages, payable when they go home which
presently is anywhere between INR 1,000 to INR 3,000 (USD 22 to 66) a month.
They are also allowed to take some advances from him if they require for which
he keeps an account.
The first month’s salary is taken by him as
his placement fee. The workers are not told what he actually takes from the
employer & it varies from INR 3,000 (USD
66) for an untrained worker to INR 4,500 (USD 100) for a good full-time worker.
When he places the worker, he charges the employer a placement fee of INR 23,000
(USD 511) for 11 months. The waiting time to get a worker is just three to four
days.
Other agents are not as outspoken as this
one. For example, another agent in Rani Bhag agreed to give an interview, but
was very reluctant to share any information. He emphasised that all his work is
legal and that he maintains proper records of all the workers but none were
available to be shared. He said that most of the workers came from Bihar, Jharkhand
and West Bengal due to acute poverty and lack
of opportunities in those States. It was very acceptable for the families in
those areas to send people to earn cash in the urban areas. He said he went to
the area himself, as he too was from Bihar, and
brought women who were all above 18, by train and accommodated them in a rented
facility until they were placed. But there was no address or details of this
house. He said he takes full responsibility for the workers and even gets their
police verification done. He fixes the salary with the employer who pays it to
him. He also stays in touch with the employers in case the workers have any
problems. He said he takes a commission from the employer which varies between
INR 7,000 to10,000 (USD 156 to 222) but nothing else.
While the employer of one of the workers he
had placed said she paid INR 5,000 (USD 111) as salary, the worker did not know
how much she was actually paid. Her father had got a sum of money from the
agent when she came to Delhi.
She was now receiving INR 500 (USD 11) a month from him and would be given the
rest at the end of the ‘contract’ period.
An interview was also conducted with a man
from Jharkhand who is co-ordinating a network of placement agencies called the National
Adivasi Development Sewa Sanstha, with an office in Pujabi Bagh. It claims
to be a professional body that takes a contribution of INR 5,000 (USD 111) a
month from each of its members.
He said that all the placement agencies who
are members are registered under the Shops and Establishment Act of the State
where they are based. Most agencies registered themselves as a precaution
following a case of one molested worker. As the Chief of Police took the case
in hand, it resulted in 19 minor girls being rescued and a majority of agents
being arrested.
He said that agencies charged between INR
20,000 and 26,000 (USD 444 and 578) as registration fees to employers but they
also paid between INR 10,000 and 12,000 (USD 222 and 266) to the sub-agents who
brought the girls to Delhi.
Formalities like keeping the home addresses of workers or records of agents who
bring workers were not maintained. It is a kind of anonymous trade deal.
This person seemed to be well informed
about several legislative processes taking place in the field of domestic work.
He knew about the draft bill of the National Commission for Women, and thought
it was a good draft. He also knew about the ILO Convention although he did not
know its details.
He felt that migration was a right and that
agents had an important role to play in matching those in need at both ends –
workers and employers. He felt that there should be proper norms which they
were willing to follow and that this would stop malpractices by the agents.
But the agents who ‘supply’ the workers
also complain that they do not always get the entire sum of money they are
promised as they too do not do this on a regular basis. Like Philander who is a
construction worker in Delhi,
they bring back a couple of workers when they go home and are pleased to make a
one-time windfall.
3.1.8 Problems faced by employers
Discussions with employers also revealed
the trap they are in. One employer had a worker as a nursing assistant who said
she was from Assam.
She had not been trained. She was brought by an agent who took INR 15,000 (USD
333) from the employer every month and who in turn paid the woman INR 6,000 (USD
133) for live-in work. When the woman realised this, she told the employer that
she would stop work for 10 days and then come back to work for him directly for
a salary of INR 8,000 (USD 178). However, every month after that she demanded a
raise. Finally, she threatened to leave. As she did not come to work one day,
the employer contacted another agent and got another assistant. After a few
days, the old one returned and created a ruckus and did not allow the other
woman to work in the house. Finally the second agent intervened, threatened her
and she finally left. The employer did not understand what had gone on.
Another employer got a maid through a placement
agency called Secure Placement Agency in Kakrola, Dwarka in 2009 by paying a
commission of INR 12,000 (USD 267). For the first two months the salary of INR
3,000 (USD 67) had to be paid to the agent and not the worker. Subsequently,
the agent was not contactable as the number had been changed. From then
onwards, the employer related directly to the worker. The worker was from Bengal, and when she arrived she was around 17 years old.
She had no training and could not speak Hindi so there were problems. Initially
she just cleaned the vessels and the house. But gradually she learned to cook.
She was sent home by the employer every year for three weeks to one month and
her money was sent to her parents whenever she wanted. She did not get a weekly
off but was permitted to go out whenever she wanted. Now that she is trained,
she cooks, cares for the dog and manages the house. She has been with the
employer for three years and now earns INR 4,500 (USD 100) a month and receives
clothes and toiletries. The employer has employed another maid for dishwashing.
This employer considered herself fortunate.
3.2 Response of workers presently in Delhi
Interviews with migrant workers presently
working in Delhi
throw light on the existing situation. Contacting them was not easy as the
majority of them are live-in workers, who are kept under close supervision by
their employers. In fact, one of the workers was reluctant to respond during
the interview as the employer remained within ear-shot. Contact with these
workers was facilitated because the researcher also employed a migrant worker
from Jharkhand who knew others in the area. All the interviews were conducted
while they were at work.
3.2.1 Profile of Migrant workers
Among the 25 migrant workers that were
interviewed, 68 per cent of them were live-in domestic workers, 28 per cent of
them worked in 2 homes and 4 per cent did not live-in but worked a full day in
one home. Twelve per cent of them were still below the age of 18 and the
majority of them (60 per cent) were between 19 and 24 while 20 per cent were
between 25 and 30 years and a small percentage (8 per cent) were above 30. They
were largely uneducated & 68 per cent
had received no formal education, while 28 per cent of them had received a
primary education and 4 per cent a secondary education. The majority of them
(56 per cent) were unmarried, 20 per cent were married, 16 per cent were separated
and two were widowed. Ninety-six per cent of them were from the rural areas.
While just two of them came from small households of four members, the majority
(80 per cent) came from larger households of four to seven members and a few
even more. Only 28 per cent of them did not have any other member of the family
in Delhi while
the rest of them had their husbands or a sister, brother, cousin or aunt there.
The profiles of the respondents indicate
that it is mainly very young unmarried women from rural Jharkhand that are
migrating for work to urban areas even when they have a secondary education.
The majority of them already have a relative in Delhi. The majority of them are live-in
workers to start with and then manage to move out after some years of experience.
Some of them have made Delhi
their home and live with their husbands in rented rooms.
3.2.2 Prior to the Migration process
All the respondents had been engaged in
wage work in agriculture, in brick kilns or in construction prior to migration,
except for three who were housewives and another four who had been cultivating
their own agricultural land.
For 28 per cent of the workers, Delhi was not the first
place they had migrated to. Two of them had migrated within the State to Ranchi and then to Patna
while the others had gone to distant places like Kolkata, Ludhiana, and Pune. Twenty per cent of them
had worked in two different locations earlier and two had even been to three different
ones before.
Table 11. Reasons for migration (per
cent)
|
|
Priority1
|
Priority2
|
Priority3
|
|
Urged by the family to earn money
|
40
|
8
|
20
|
|
No work opportunities locally
|
36
|
28
|
36
|
|
To make more money
|
16
|
48
|
28
|
|
Desire to discover other parts of the
country
|
-
|
12
|
8
|
|
No other skills for work
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
To broaden one’s knowledge
|
4
|
|
4
|
The pressure from parents, because of lack
of other opportunities for livelihood, seems to be the major reason for the
girls/women to leave the area. This is related to the need to get better work
and have cash at their disposal. A few of them mentioned their interest in
seeing other places and enhancing their knowledge.
The majority (48 per cent) of them had gone
to Delhi
because they had a relative there and 24 per cent of them had heard that the
wages were better there. Another 24 per cent of them did not choose their
destination but went along because a group was going to Delhi.
They were quite young when they first
migrated & 20 per cent of them were below
16 and another 64 per cent were between 17 and 20 years. The rest were above 21
years of age. Significantly, two of them did not know how long they had been in
Delhi, 16 per
cent of them had been there for five to six years, 72 per cent for two to four
years and one of them for a year.
3.2.3 The recruitment process
About half the respondents had found work
in Delhi
through friends/relatives while the other half came through male or female
brokers or agents. These were introduced to the agents by relatives who had
worked in Delhi
themselves. In some cases, the same agent did not go through the entire process
with them. For example, Nitya’s cousin gave her the number of a woman in her
village who was on home leave. She brought Nitya to Delhi with her but then took her to the house
of another woman that Nitya did not know where she stayed for two days before
she was placed. She assumed this was the agent’s office. Thus, the chain of
intermediaries goes from the familiar to the unknown, but is generally mediated
by a relative or friend. All the respondents said that the agents were from their
area itself which is why she/he was identifiable and the majority had met them
before they had left. Most of them were of the opinion that the agent was a
professional with an office as he/she had a phone number and could be located.
They had no idea exactly what an office should be like.
Interestingly, more than half of them had
paid sums ranging from INR 1,500 to 6,000 (USD 33 to 133) to the agent for
their travel. They were told this was the broker’s placement fee, plus the cost
of transportation to Delhi
and living expenses until they found a job. In some cases this money was taken
by the relative and the women did not know whether all of it went to the agent
or not. Regardless of whether they had waited long or not at all in Delhi till they found a
job, they had no claim on the money they had paid. Those who paid the lower
amounts had managed to produce the cash without borrowing. Among the others, one
had borrowed money at a low rate of interest, five of them had sold some land
and four of them had sold some jewellery.
None of them had been forced into doing any
work or providing any services during recruitment. They had received very
little information prior to departure and did not know what to expect. Sixty
per cent knew they were going for domestic work and a slightly larger number
knew they were being taken to Delhi.
Table 12. Comparison between promises
made and working conditions
|
|
Similar
|
Worse
|
No
earlier information
|
Better
|
Different
|
|
Means of payment
|
80
|
4
|
16
|
-
|
-
|
|
Location
|
68
|
16
|
8
|
-
|
8
|
|
Nature of job
|
60
|
24
|
16
|
-
|
-
|
|
Annual Leave
|
56
|
16
|
28
|
-
|
-
|
|
Regularity of payment
|
52
|
28
|
16
|
4
|
-
|
|
Social Benefits
|
48
|
8
|
32
|
8
|
4
|
|
Amount of earnings
|
20
|
36
|
16
|
28
|
-
|
|
Days off
|
20
|
44
|
28
|
8
|
-
|
|
No of hours of work
|
8
|
68
|
24
|
-
|
-
|
|
Living Conditions
|
4
|
40
|
28
|
16
|
-
|
|
0ther
|
-
|
4
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
3.2.4 The journey to Delhi
As these respondents had come from
different locations, they had travelled by different means to Delhi. Forty per cent of them had gone by
train, 48 per cent by bus and eight per cent in a private vehicle. Sixty per
cent of them had gone directly while 24 per cent of them had stopped a few
times on the way for periods ranging from a few days to a week. Of those who
stopped, four of them knew in advance that they would not be going directly but
five of them were not told anything. All except one had travelled in a group, but
it was not with people that they knew. Only one of them travelled alone with
the female agent. Eighty-eight per cent of them had no problems on the journey
while eight per cent of them said that they were asked to do cooking and
cleaning at the places where they had stopped. Some also had to work in the
small eatery that was run by the family with whom they had stayed. In return, they
were given food but nothing else. Three of them (12 per cent) who had stopped
in another city like Ranchi or Ambala en route to Delhi, had experienced
sexual abuse from the agent or other men who were with him on the journey but
did not want to describe what actually happened.
On arrival in Delhi, eight of them (32 per cent) went
directly to the employer’s house while the rest stayed with relatives or agents
for up to a week until they were placed, during which time they were cared for.
Only one of them stayed at the broker’s residence for a whole month and had to
work for the family while she waited to be placed. She was fed but not paid and
seemed to consider this normal.
Although the journey had been uneventful for
most of them since they travelled in a group, there were some that suffered
abuse. These were the ones who had not been informed about how they would
travel, had waited to be placed and in the meanwhile had been used as labour en
route.
3.2.6 Experience at work
Most of the respondents had started with domestic
work, although a few of them (20 per cent) had first done other jobs like
helping in a tea shop, cleaning an office and working in a small hotel before
they were placed for domestic work.
Interestingly, 64 per cent of them reported
that they had signed a contract when they commenced work. The contract was in
fact an agreement between the agent, the employer and the worker saying that
the worker would be placed for 11 months and her salary would be paid to the
agent for a specific number of months or for all that time. There was nothing in
it about the conditions of work, working hours, etc. In most cases, the worker
did not know exactly how much her salary would be. What they did know was that
they were bound to work for the same employer for 11 months.
Half of them said that they could have
refused to take the job if they wanted; while the other half said that they did
not have any option. They needed the money, they did not know how to earn it
otherwise and so they felt obliged to accept the job without knowing exactly what
to expect.
Most of the live-in workers (68 per cent of
respondents) were informed of their working conditions by the employers. Only
half of them had time to rest in the afternoon, only two of them had a separate
room to keep their belongings and to sleep. Others slept on the balcony, the
kitchen floor or in the store room, or in the room of the old parent or
children. Some could use a toilet in the house while others had to go outside
to common toilets and did not have access to them at night.
There were several things that the
employers did not permit them to do like sitting on the furniture (36 per cent),
going outside the house (28 per cent), one was not allowed to talk to the
neighbours, and two were not allowed to take any weekly or monthly holidays.
Just 20 per cent of them had no restrictions. 80 per cent of them said that
they felt they worked excessively and that the employers had no qualms about
asking them to work overtime. A few said they were forced to do heavy work beyond
their capacity like moving heavy furniture. Twenty per cent of them, particularly
the younger ones, also said that they were often beaten, scolded, abused and
talked to very rudely.
A matter of luck
Sixteen year-old Nimi had been in Delhi for just eight months and was still
very scared although she said her employers treated her well. She was often
alone at home during the day. She tried to keep herself busy with work as there
was always much to do but she missed home. Madam would phone her a couple of
times from work and give her instructions and so she was happy. She was allowed
to cook what she liked for her mid-day meal but she ate only when she was
really hungry. Quite often she did not eat as there was no company.
She was initially scared of the electrical gadgets but
she had gradually learned to use the iron. It was also difficult to put the
clothes that Madam had put into the washing machine out to dry, because the
lines were high and the jeans were so heavy. She woke up at 5 a.m. and slept
only at 11 p.m., but could take a nap in the afternoon until the child came
back from school. She kept her own few possessions in a corner in the enclosed
balcony and slept on a mat in the children’s room. She looked forward to
Saturdays as she went shopping in the car with Madam. On Sunday evenings she
went to the church that was nearby and there she met many other friends, some
from her area. That is also how she had got to know of Chetnanilaya, the
organization started by the church to assist domestic workers.
But unlike Nimi, Divya[10]
at age 20 was not so fortunate. Her brother-in-law had brought her to Delhi in January 2011 and
she found work through Prashant Placement Service. As she had been feeling
unwell for some time, she refused to wash the clothes one day. The employer
beat her with the wooden paddle used to wash clothes, on her back and legs till
she became unconscious. The employer immediately took her to a private clinic
where she was given some medicine. He called up her brother in-law while in the
clinic and said that Divya was suffering from tuberculosis and that he should
come and take her to a bigger hospital.
First she was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital,
from where she was referred to Safdarjung hospital and then finally to AIIMS
trauma center but there also they refused to take her. She was brought back to
the Safdarjung Emergency Unit but was not given any attention by the doctors
and lay outside the hospital on a stretcher.
Her brother in-law then informed the Domestic Workers
Forum of Chetnanilaya who went to support her and publicised the case through
the media. She was finally admitted in H- block ward No- 17. The Doctors confirmed that she had a broken
cervical bone affecting the movement of her arms and legs which may cause
paralysis. Because of the injury, movement in her limbs had weakened. She is
now in the neurosurgical ward getting treatment. Only later that evening, under
great pressure, the police filed a First Information Report.
Unlike Divya, 68 per cent of the workers
felt they were not forced to do anything untoward although they had long
working hours in general. 88 per cent of them were permitted to contact their
parents. Some of them had their own phones but were not allowed to use them without
permission, 16 per cent were allowed to use the employer’s phone once a month,
and another 16 per cent had to use a public phone booth. Sixteen per cent of
them could not send money back to the family as they would be paid only after
the 11 months of work. For 40 per cent of them, their families depended totally
on their income and for the rest it was only partially. Seventy-two per cent of
the workers felt they were free to leave the job whenever they wanted but those
who were employed for the first time felt they were bound by their commitment
to work for 11 months.
The non live-in workers lived with their
husbands in rented rooms and one lived alone in a small rented room. She had
already worked several years in Delhi
and earned more money as she worked in several houses. These are colonies of
buildings where migrants from specific locations congregate, sharing facilities
and supporting each other.
Eight per cent of the respondents seemed to
be unaware or inhibited to answer questions about the household in which they
worked. They did not know what their employers did and were silent about the
kind of treatment meted out to them. Those who responded said the employers
were professionals (36 per cent), in private business (48 per cent) or in
government service (8 per cent). The majority (64 per cent) were kind to the
workers, a small number were very rude and some were both. Twenty per cent of
the workers complained that they did not get sufficient food and were given
only the leftovers. 16 per cent of them also said that they were not paid on
time.
A few of the workers (12 per cent) had not
changed their employers since their arrival in Delhi but the majority had moved from one
employer to another even seven to eight times. They had changed mainly because
they were in search of better working conditions. This indicates that workers
are also free to find their own employers after the first placement, more so when
the worker realises that the agent collects the worker’s wages and gives her
only a part of it. But there are a few who have a sense of loyalty to the agent
because it was through him/her that they found work and could earn money.
3.2.7 Opportunities to ameliorate their situation
Isolated and busy as they are, little do
these workers get an opportunity to link with local organizations or networks that
can help them in times of distress. Eighty-four per cent of them did not belong
to any workers’ organization. Of the four who did, two belonged to Chetnanilaya
which is the organization started by the Catholic Church for migrant domestic
workers and the other two did not name the organization but had received identity
cards as domestic workers from Chetnanilaya.
All these workers had been obliged to
register in the police station. The Delhi
police have made it mandatory for all domestic workers to be registered at the
police station to prevent infiltration from neighbouring countries. This is
discriminatory as all workers have a right to cross state borders in India without
proof of identity. The registration of migrant labour, if made mandatory,
should be under the purview of the Labour Department and not the police.
Twenty-four per cent of them felt that they
had no one to turn to in case of need, while the others felt they could rely on
the friends or relatives who had taken them to Delhi. One of them, the independent non
live-in worker even said she could go to the police. Twelve per cent of them
said their employers would help them.
Some 24 per cent of the respondents think
that domestic work is a meaningful and dignified employment when they are paid
well and are respected by the employer. The others were not proud of being
domestic workers mainly because it was work in which they were not treated with
dignity and where they also felt no self respect. They felt that they were
treated with disdain by the rest of the society.
Eighty per cent of them said that domestic
workers should have rights like all other workers especially a weekly off,
minimum wages, medical allowance and even a savings scheme. Several of them
felt life would be easier if they had a better awareness and understanding of
their rights as workers and had access to legal assistance. But most of all
they felt they needed emotional support being away from home.
When asked whether they had ever been harassed
and if so how they reacted, 40 per cent (10) of them said they had not been harassed.
The others said they were not being treated fairly as they were overworked,
confined and restrained from interacting with their friends, not given proper
food, etc. Two had even run away and two others had gone to the police through
Chetnanilaya when they did not get full payment. It was quite an achievement to
get their unpaid wages as the owner kept making excuses and false statements.
Another two had changed employers with the help of the agency and in the case
of one of them the agency had warned the employer to behave better. They had
picked up the courage to get away from an exploitative situation with the help
of their friends despite restrictions on interaction with others. While a few
of them had used the phone, the others had told workers in the neighbouring
houses about their problems. It was again friends, and in one case, the agent,
who had helped them with accommodation until they had found other work. One of
the most important needs expressed was to have a safe place to stay while moving
from one employer to another.
While the majority of the workers seemed
confident that they could now take things in their hands and assert themselves,
there were still 36 per cent who felt very insecure. Whereas 28 per cent of
them said they would not recommend that other family members come to Delhi, a few said they
would give them proper information about the best channels through which to
come so that they are treated well.
It is evident that the stream of workers
will continue to flow to urban locations as a good number of them find good
employers and seem to be happy with their earnings. But the real beneficiaries
are the agents who have made it a lucrative business. Some of these feel no
responsibility towards the workers and do not abide by the law. Workers are
still arriving at a very young age and employers have no qualms about overworking
them as they remain docile and have no alternatives. Some of them have been
able to get in touch with support organizations and have acquired the confidence
to demand minimal rights. Employers too are becoming aware that these workers
have to be treated with respect but very few feel that they are workers and
should be treated like other workers, with a weekly off and regulated working hours.
3.3 Potential migrants
Interviews were conducted with 25 potential
migrant workers of Jharkhand who intended to migrate to an urban location. It
was not easy to locate these workers as they do not openly say that they intend
to migrate for domestic work. While some of them were introduced by returned
migrants, others were found in a skill development training centre where they
were being trained to work either as security guards or as domestic
workers.
3.3.1 Profile of the group
Of the respondents who intended to migrate
for domestic work, 48 per cent were still below the age of 18, 48 per cent
between 19 and 24 years and just one above 25. Twenty-four per cent of them had
a secondary education and 72 per cent had completed the 12th class.
One of them had even done some computer training. So the majority of these
women were literate with a decent level of education. 92 per cent of them were
unmarried, the rest were married and one of them also had a child.
Sixty per cent of them had been earning in
the last year & 20 per cent
in agriculture, 32 per cent in other wage work such as construction or brick making,
and 8 per cent in domestic work in Ranchi.
Of the remaining, a few were attending a skill training course and a few were
engaged in their own households, tending goats.
3.3.2 Migration plans
Forty-eight per cent of them were planning
to migrate within the coming six months, another 32 per cent after completing
the training they were undergoing in the coming year and the remaining eight
per cent had not fixed a time and would migrate when the family needed them to.
The main reasons that drive them to leave the village is the lack of local job
opportunities, to make money and sometimes to acquire more knowledge.
Table 13.
Reasons for migrating (per cent)
|
|
Priority1
|
Priority2
|
Priority3
|
|||
|
No work opportunities locally
|
40
|
4
|
-
|
|||
|
To make more money
|
24
|
52
|
12
|
|||
|
To broaden knowledge/skill level
|
20
|
24
|
-
|
|||
|
To experience other parts of the world
|
4
|
-
|
4
|
|||
|
No other skills for work
|
8
|
4
|
8
|
|||
|
To find better working conditions
|
|
8
|
24
|
|||
|
Urged by family to earn money
|
4
|
4
|
48
|
|||
|
Other
|
-
|
4
|
4
|
|||
They had all got to know about
opportunities outside from their relatives and friends. But interestingly, 60
per cent of them said that their first choice would be to migrate to Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand,
while another said Dhanbad which is a smaller city in Jharkhand and only 36 per
cent of them said they would choose to go to a large metropolis like Delhi or Mumbai. This is
a marked change as Ranchi
now also offers opportunities for work and women prefer to remain in their own region
where they speak the language and can return home when they want. All of them
said that they would go with their relatives and friends and none of them
mentioned any agents. Twenty per cent of them had already made arrangements to
move while the others were only considering migrating. Of those who had made
arrangements, they were sure that they would not need any money except the
train fare and of those, one of them said she had arranged to sell some land in
order to get this. The others had not begun to think that far ahead and they
did not think that much money would be required.
3.3.3 Preparedness to migrate
Among this group of respondents, 76 per
cent of them knew others that were working in Delhi or in a big city. But not many of them
knew about their working conditions, 68 per cent of them did not know whether
they were happy there or not and how often they were allowed to come home and
92 per cent of them did not know whether they sent money home or not. Consequently,
very few of them knew what to expect for themselves when they migrated for
work.
Only 32 per cent of them knew that they would
do domestic work in the city and 48 per cent of them knew that they would get
accommodation. But for the rest, the level of awareness was extremely low & 92 per cent of them did not know what salary they could expect, and
only 16 per cent of them knew that they could come home only after one year at
the earliest. They were not very knowledgeable about what they could expect and
neither had they taken interest in trying to find out.
Nevertheless, a large majority of them were
aware that many of those who went to the cities also faced problems. The major
issues that they mentioned were that they did not get payment either fully or
on time, that they did not get proper food, when they were sick they were not
treated well, they could not come home on holidays and were not able to contact
their families. Very few had heard that they were beaten by their employers,
(12 per cent), or were sexually harassed (16 per cent).
A few of them (20 per cent) had heard that
there were women’s unions or organizations where they could go for assistance
if needed. One of them specifically mentioned Nirmala Niketan, four per cent
said they could approach the church. 28 per cent of them said they could go to
the police.
Only a small proportion of them were aware
of their rights as workers. Fifty-two per cent of them knew that they were
entitled to one day off for every six days of work, but only 40 per cent of
them knew that there was such a thing as a minimum wage or maximum working time
and even fewer who knew about the right to annual leave (32 per cent) and a
still smaller number that live-in workers had a right to sufficient food and
safe accommodation.
Eighty-four per cent of them did not agree
that it was only recruiting agents registered under the Shops and Establishment
Act of the State or with the Labour Department that could recruit workers to
travel outside the state. The remainder said they did not know. This is quite
natural since they have all been going to distant places with the help of
relatives and friends and they are unable to distinguish between an agent and a
relative as many of the agents are from their home State.
Only 20 per cent of these women understood
what sexual harassment was and another 25 per cent of them understood what
forced labour was. Very little of this is discussed in the area as there is a
general feeling that when people go out to work, life will be different. There
don’t seem to be any norms about how people should be treated when they engage
in wage labour.
In the generation that intends to migrate,
all have received some formal education with a large majority having completed
higher secondary school. Yet, there are a good number who still intend to
migrate below the permissible age of 18 years. They believe that they only have
to produce the money for their travel and that the rest will be taken care of. Only
a few of them are aware of what they will earn and under what conditions they
will work. Despite the fact that some of them do know about the support
networks, they are all still quite vague and ignorant about their rights. One
gets the impression that the push factors are so strong that they take it for
granted that they are expected to go out for work. Nevertheless, there are a
substantial number who do not intend to go outside the State.
3.4 Need for legislation on domestic work
Despite the fact that the GOI did vote for
the ILO Convention on Domestic Work, 2011 (No. 189) no legislation has yet been
put in place to protect these workers. The Ministry of Labour and Employment of
the GOI had instituted a Task Force that developed a National Policy for
Domestic Workers. Although this is a very comprehensive policy, it has not yet
been notified. Several states in the country have recognised domestic work even
before the National Labour Congress did so in April 2012. This means that
domestic work will now be scheduled and minimum wages announced if and when the
trade unions press for them. Clearly, for domestic workers to have decent
conditions of work whether in their local areas or outside, a comprehensive
legislation for their protection and social security needs to be developed.
3.5 Child domestic workers
According to a study conducted by the National
Commission for the Protection of Child Rights on child abuse in India in 2007,
23.2 per cent of all working children were domestic workers and 81.16 per cent
of these domestic workers were girls. As much as 19 per cent were in the age
group of 10 to12 years. Another study by two NGOs in Delhi,
namely, Save the Children and Butterflies (Rani and Roy (eds), 2005) stated
that 90 per cent of child domestic workers were living with their employers, of
which 22 per cent were from South Delhi.
Parents of 29 per cent had signed a contract with the agents who had brought
them to Delhi. Twenty-two
per cent had no contact with their families, 20 per cent said they were
overburdened with work, scolded, beaten and locked up, 35 per cent were
verbally abused and 5.14 per cent were not allowed to speak to anybody outside
the household.
Among the numerous newspaper reports of
inhuman treatment of child domestic workers, the Hindustan Times on 2 May 2012
reported the case of a 13 year-old domestic worker who was found locked in the
house of doctors while they went on vacation to Bangkok and was surveyed by them on CCTV. She
was rescued by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) at the behest of an NGO. The
report said that eight to nine child domestic workers were rescued every month
according to data from the CWCs in Delhi.
According to the police, 90 per cent of these cases go unreported.
The first major issue therefore is that
children continue to be inducted into domestic work and a large number of these
are migrant live-in workers and therefore invisible to the public. India has the
necessary legislative framework to protect them from exploitation.
The Child Labour (Prevention and
Regulation) Act 1986 is restricted to children below the age of 14. As more and
more cases of abuse of children in domestic work were publicised, the Juvenile
Justice Act, 1986 was replaced by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000 (JJA) that, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child 1989, provides for the protection, treatment and rehabilitation of
children up to the age of 18. Article 29 of it provides for the constitution of
district-level CWCs that have quasi-judicial authority to dispose of cases of
violation of children’s rights as well as to provide for the basic needs of
victims. There are six such committees in Delhi.
Further, in 2006, the GOI published a list of hazardous occupations prohibited
for children under 18. Domestic work was included in it. Hence violators can be
prosecuted and punished with imprisonment of three months to one year or a fine
up to INR 10,000 (USD 222).
The CWCs constituted under the JJA have all
the powers of a magistrate’s bench to decide on cases of children in need of
care and protection. According to Ms Bharati Sharma of Shakti Shalini, a child
activist who was the first President of one of the CWCs that were constituted
in Delhi in
2003, there are sufficient institutional mechanisms to carry out its orders for
the benefit of the child. It can summon the employer and order payment of wages
that are due to the child. However, it has no powers to prosecute exploitative
or abusive agents or employers. They have to be produced in a Magistrate’s
court. The CWC can file the case and prepare the brief for prosecution based on
four laws: the JJA; the Abolition of Child Labour Act 1986, the Bonded Labour
Act 1976 and finally the Indian Penal Code that provides sanctions for
confinement, kidnapping, abduction. As several cases concerning child migrants
can be classified as trafficking for labour exploitation, Ms Sharma strongly
feels that the ITPA should be amended to allow prosecution of agents supplying
child labour. However strong the case may be, agencies and employers are often
able to influence the police and move things in their favour. Hence, the
implementation of the law has to be made more stringent to overcome the
existing impunity of employers and agents who violate child rights.
Discussions with the Delhi Police and
members of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO working for the rights of the
child revealed that as per its mandate under the JJA and the corresponding
rules of application, the Delhi Government has created a Special Juvenile
Police Unit (SJPU) in each of the 11 police districts as well as for the railways
and airports. Every police station has designated two or three police officers
with the appropriate aptitude, training and orientation as Juvenile or Child
Welfare Officers, who deal with children in conflict with law as well as those
in need of care and protection. At the State level the Office of the Joint
Commissioner of Police, Special Police Unit for Women and Children at Nanakpura
is the nodal office on issues relating to children.
In the absence of social workers which are
yet to be appointed by the State Government, the SJPUs have sought assistance
from voluntary organizations working in the field of child rights. These have
been proactively working at the district and police station levels to train
police personnel on the law relating to juveniles and sensitive treatment of
children in difficult situations. In fact, the Rules for application of the JJA
advocate for a stronger relationship between NGOs and government agencies.
One of the primary criticisms of the Rules is
that they invest too much authority in the police, something that most
child-friendly legislations seek to minimize. The effective implementation of
the various Acts depends on the various State governments and the involvement
of civil society. Very often the concerned Departments of Labour, Social
Welfare or Women and Child Development, are ill-informed of the Acts. In 2010,
the Supreme Court directed all State governments to create CWCs. However, most
of these are ineffective because their members are not familiar with the law
and its provisions. The Ministry of Child and Family Welfare admits this:
…….these
policies and legislations for children have on the whole suffered from weak
implementation, owing to scant attention to issues of child protection,
resulting in scarce resources, minimal infrastructure, and inadequate services
to address protection problems.[11]
The Campaign against Child Trafficking in Delhi has been created to
take these issues forward. The major anomaly in relation to child domestic
workers is the age at which they are legally permitted to work. The minimum age
for employment is 14 years, but since domestic work has been declared hazardous
for children they can only be employed as domestic workers after the age of 18.
Moreover, the JJA bans labour for children up to the age of 18. These
inconsistencies should be resolved through a comprehensive legislation to
define and protect the young worker.
3.6 Adult domestic workers
The law governing adult migrant domestic
workers is the Inter-State Migrant Workmen’s (Regulation of Employment and
Conditions of Service) Act 1978.[12] The objective of the Act is to regulate the employment of interstate
migrant workers, to safe guard their interest and to provide for their
conditions of service and for matters connected there with. The provisions of
the Act are applicable to every establishment in which five or more interstate
workers are employed and to every contractor, who engages five or more interstate
migrant workers. The Act also provides for registration by the Deputy Labour
Commissioner of establishments employing these workers and for issuing licences
to labour contractors. The employers and contractors are required to maintain
registers and other records giving particulars of interstate migrant workers
employed along with the nature of jobs performed by such workers and their wage
rates.
This Act is totally dysfunctional today and
the Labour Departments themselves say that it needs to be substantially amended
to effectively apply to the issues of migration today. Moreover, the work of
migrants in private households requires specific provisions to guarantee their
safety and give them access to social security.
One of the biggest limitations of this Act
is its definition of the role of labour contractors. Section 2.1.e of the Act
stipulates that “the agent/contractor that moves workers from one State to
another State ...should be registered in the state of origin of the workers
when hiring five or more workers.” Today, in the case of the domestic workers, labour
contractors work through a series of sub-agents who transfer the workers from
hand-to-hand in small numbers. The big agents are located in the host State
supplying single workers to individual households. As our case studies have
revealed, the majority of these labour suppliers are not registered, have just
a phone number and no records. Even in cases where they do have an office, they
keep in the good books of the vigilance police so that no raids or
investigations on them are carried out.
3.7 Recommendations to improve conditions for migrant domestic workers
As mentioned in the introduction, the out-migration
of people from certain areas of Jharkhand, Bihar
and neighbouring states has to do with the general lack of development in the
area that has also triggered off various underground protest movements. The
Labour Departments in these states are to a great extent ineffective as labour
itself is not organized. In order to ameliorate this situation, the Jharkhand
Anti-trafficking Network has been put in place. Through this programme the
Police Department, has tried to institute a number of schemes for the emancipation
of the area and its people but at a very slow pace.
One of the more effective programmes has
been a skill development training spearheaded by Dr. P.M Nair, Indian Police
Service, who is well versed on issues of trafficking as well as in dealing with
the insurgency in the troubled areas of Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa. He says
this programme is very low key although it has already trained a large number
of young tribal boys and girls and placed them in jobs locally. Dr. Nair
himself has developed a protocol on the issue of trafficking and feels there is
sufficient material available but these need to be collated and a comprehensive
framework evolved with implementing and monitoring mechanisms that highlight
the role of the different departments that presently deal with this issue.
In order to further ameliorate the
situation of migrant domestic workers he suggested the following measures:
1.
The ILO should conduct an
interdisciplinary workshop with a small group of participants in order to take
stock of what has already been done to prevent and control trafficking – protocols,
training manuals, the various legal regulatory measures, institutional mechanisms,
etc. This will prevent reinventing the wheel and help consolidate the material
that exists. Participants should represent concerned Ministries like the
Department of Women and Children, the Home Department, the Labour Department,
the Police, and some activists working on these issues. Based on what, has
already been done, the workshop could decide what is still needed to be done by
way of updating protocols, creating institutional mechanisms, legislative coverage,
etc.
2.
There is need to develop
systematic training for the Labour Department personnel on trafficking issues
and for Police Department personnel on labour issues. Comprehensive training
modules should be developed, or existing manuals updated [13] and
efforts made for systematic training. One important category of people that
would need such training is the Magistrates and Public Prosecutors.
3.
While rescue of child and
abused domestic labour is still important, post- rescue rehabilitation is
equally important. He proposed several levels of skill development-cum-placement
and suggested that funds and commitments towards this could be accessed through
Corporate Social Responsibility.
Mr Anurag Gupta, IPS – IG-CID, Crime in
Jharkhand, said that the Government of Jharkhand is aware of the problems that
the migrant workers face outside but realise that they do not have jurisdiction
in other States. They intend to protect them through the adoption of a good Migrant
Workers Act within the State. At present, they are discussing the contents of
this law and feel it should provide for the registration of workers with local
bodies as these are more accessible to people. These bodies can create their
own labour registers which can then be consolidated at State level. The State
can then directly supply labour to employers in different parts of the country
as and when required for the payment of a fee thus bypassing the agents and
assuring that the workers get their due. These fees will go into a fund that
can be used both for the welfare of the workers as well as in emergency
situations.
If the Jharkhand Government does this and
makes it work, it will be a good practice that all the labour-sending states
can adopt. In this way they will bypass the agents that traffic workers. Bank
accounts for all migrant workers can be created in which employers deposit their
monthly salaries. If a minimum wage is set, the Government can see that the
workers get a wage appropriate to their level of skills and their years of
service. In this way they will avoid forced labour and exploitation.
At present, it is private institutions like
the Nirmala Niketan Cooperative that provide services and short stay shelters for
migrant domestic workers. Besides, there are now several organisations of
domestic workers like the National Forum of Domestic Workers and unions like
SEWA that defend the rights of domestic workers. This can be done only when
such workers are organised and are willing to raise their voices collectively
with the authorities. Loyalties to employers and agents, difficult access to
live-in workers and the insecurity of being away from home make this task
difficult. The nexus between the lucrative business of the agents and the
police also makes busting the chain dangerous. Only a pro-active approach
between the Department of Labour and the Police can help in this process.
3.8 Conclusion
Several interstate migrant women workers
who move from Jharkhand to Delhi
for domestic work, especially those that are below 18 years of age, are victims
of exploitation and forced labour. Those who are in the clutches of the agents
are deceived about their conditions of work and bound to the employer for the
period of 11 months. Some are victims of trafficking.
Hopefully the Campaign against Child
Trafficking and the recently formed National Platform to advocate for
Comprehensive Legislation for Domestic Workers will succeed in securing the rights
of these workers and conditions for safe and decent migration.
4. Conclusions of the study
Regardless of the risks involved and the difficulties
faced, the excessive pressure to earn money drives women to migrate internally
and internationally for work. With poor, rural women having limited skills and
with the rising demand for domestic help in urban locations, there are
increasing avenues for employment in the domestic sphere. The urban locations
within India promise better
wages and women and even children from the troubled and less developed parts of
east India
respond to this need. Similarly, lured by better wages, women from southern India,
particularly Kerala, respond to the demand for domestic help in the Arab
countries. While this is a legitimate means of livelihood, several of these
women and children for various reasons are put into difficult situations
primarily because domestic work is not recognized as work, it is undertaken
mainly by women and neither the state nor the employers at large feel obliged
to recognize the rights of these workers.
While some women are fortunate to find
employers who treat them well and pay them minimum wages, the large number are
not so fortunate, some facing sexual exploitation and the majority being overexploited
in terms of working hours, confinement and ill treatment. A good number of
women emigrate despite bad experiences in the hope that they will eventually be
able to make the money they desired to pay back debts and meet survival
pressures at home.
Similarly, for poor women from Jharkhand
who seek work in the flourishing urban locations like Delhi, their years of work away from home contribute
to mere survival and have not improved their living standards. Lack of
awareness about their rights, lack of organization as workers and lack of
sufficient support structures make them vulnerable and therefore overworked and
exploited.
It is the agent nexus that derives the greatest
advantage from the lack of information, poor law enforcement and the
legislative anomalies that shroud movement of workers in the country. Whereas
this network of agents is better consolidated in the case of emigration from
Kerala and runs like a parallel emigration route to that of the government
thereby cheating the workers into believing they are legal migrants, the agent
chain is more crude and informal in the case of Jharkhand. On the other hand,
whereas it is the workers who make exorbitant payments to the agents in the
case of Kerala, it is the employers who are at the mercy of the agents in Delhi being forced to pay
exorbitant amounts of money for placement. The workers are also indirectly
duped as deceitful wage deductions are also made by agents.
Justifying ‘labour supply’ as a legitimate
business, the National Adivasi Development Seva Sanstha claims to be a
professional body of placement agencies. They are well informed about several
legislative processes taking place in the field of domestic work: the National
Policy for Domestic Workers, the draft bill of National Commission for Women
and the ILO Domestic Work Convention, 2011 (No. 189).
There are several anomalies in the official
emigration procedures that lead to women being trafficked:
§ Emigration laws discriminate against women by fixing a minimum age
of 30 for emigration for domestic work. These women are required to get an
emigration clearance unlike other ‘skilled’ workers;
§ Whereas the emigration clearance is handled by the MOIA, the actual
emigration department at the airport is under the Ministry of Home Affairs. There
is no coordination between these two ministries;
§ Women workers who do not fulfil the emigration requirements are
aided by agents, who charge exorbitant fees, to ‘push’ women through at
emigration at the airport.
§ Whereas agents in India take advantage of vulnerable women workers,
the host countries also make their money with the supply of ‘free visas’ made
use of by these agents to keep the network operating
§ The Arab countries do not recognize domestic workers under their
labour laws and hence they can get no reprieve in case of abuse.
§ The agent network takes on the garb of a support structure in the
host country successfully helping the illegal emigrants to get out of trouble.
This invisible network is what has begun to be called the ‘Kasargod Embassy’.
Thus, while the legal framework is flawed,
there is gender discrimination and corruption at several levels.
Forced to migrate even in childhood, a
large number of children are coerced into hard physical labour and treated
inhumanly. The inconsistencies between the rather well-framed JJA and other anti-trafficking
and labour laws prevent access to justice. India has not defined trafficking
comprehensively in the ITPA. There is need for a more comprehensive Anti-Trafficking
Act and coordinated anti-trafficking protocols. Efforts must also be made to
develop some legal instruments to define and prosecute transnational organized
crime.
The lack of sufficient orientation among
public prosecutors on these issues is another stumbling block in the delivery
of justice.
While a small percentage of the migrant
workers are aware of their issues and are articulate about their rights and
need for social protection, shelters and grievance redress mechanisms, the
majority of them are still unaware of the various organizations that can help
them get assistance particularly in the case of the migrant workers in Delhi.
They resent being treated with disdain socially and hence do not easily reveal
that they migrate for domestic work.
Hence despite the predicted view
(Kuptsch-2006) that international organizations and governments would shape the
emerging recruitment industry, much like they shaped the evolving remittances
industry, it has still not occurred.
4.1. Recommendations to overcome the institutional anomalies
§ The GOI should take the necessary steps to make migration for women
domestic workers safer, decent and secure. It should therefore undo the gender
and labour discriminatory provisions in the Emigration procedures and incentivize
legal/legitimate migration. This could be done in consultation with the
National Women’s Commission and organizations of domestic workers.
§ The Emigration Act 1983 which is primarily regulatory in nature and should
be amended to provide the much needed legislative basis for the promotional and
welfare considerations related to migration in general.
§ Effective measures should be taken to improve the communication and
coordination among the various stakeholders such as the MOIA, the Home
Ministry, the Protector of Emigrants, recruiting agents and Indian Missions in
the destination Countries.
§ The State Governments should be taken on board to facilitate the
Central Government’s efforts to make emigration procedures transparent and
effective. Their role in taking timely action in tackling the issues faced by
migrants locally should also be clearly defined.
§ The Overseas Workers’ Resource Centre (OWRC) should reach out and be
more proactive in providing information and assistance to intending migrants
and the family members of overseas workers relating to all aspects of overseas
employment.
§ The Indian Overseas Workers’ Welfare Fund which is meant to meet
emergency contingencies, should increase its outreach to all migrants.
§ Welfare Officers should be appointed both at the Missions in the
destination countries as well as at various local centres within India to
address problems faced by the emigrants and help in communicating the same to
the ministry concerned for speedy remedial actions.
§ A Model Work Contract should be drawn up which could be made universally
applicable to all employers seeking to recruit workers from India. This
model framework could be modelled on the one provided in ILO Recommendation 122
accompanying Convention 189 but flexible enough so as to accommodate provisions
of labour laws of the receiving countries.
§ Given the flow of cross-country migration for domestic work, the
credibility of India’s
intentions to protect its emigrants will be enhanced when India ratifies
Convention 189. Labour-friendly and gender-fair bi-lateral agreements could
then facilitate safe and decent migration.
§ In cases of abuse of child domestic labour, the implementation of
the JJA can be made more effective through increased and extensive public
awareness and participation. The CWCs constituted under it, while having
adequate powers to protect children below the age of 18, have no jurisdiction
on the perpetrators of abuse thereby jeopardising the delivery of justice.
§ Police action in cases of child abuse is curtailed by the lack of eligible
persons to be represented on CWCs and in the SJPUs. Awareness raising among
labour inspectors and public prosecutors is key to the delivery of justice.
4.2 Steps forward
According to the definition of Trafficking
in Persons in the Palermo Protocol and the operational indicators on
trafficking developed by the ILO and the European Commission, this study
concludes that women and children are being trafficked for domestic work both within
and outside the country. While some of them are forced or coerced at work, and
others abused by agents and employers who exploit their vulnerability, a large
number of emigrants to the Gulf are blatantly cheated as they do not even
realise that they are illegal. While the focus on child labour in India has given
rise to a large number of advocacy groups that have forced the government to
engage more proactively with the issues of children being trafficked for
domestic work, there is unfortunately less advocacy on the issue of trafficking
of women for domestic work.
Governments, labour unions, civil society organizations
and human rights groups have spared no efforts to advocate for the rights and
protection of domestic workers which resulted in the adoption of the ILO
Convention 189 in 2011. This has also attracted more attention from a variety
of organisations to this particular sector.
This study we hope will be a means to
highlight the problems of migrant domestic workers leading to interventions
that will eventually dispel the existing anomalies in legislative procedures
thereby safeguarding the rights of migrant domestic workers to work with
dignity, social security and protection.
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[1] For details please refer to “Resolution
concerning a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy”
,ILC92-PR22-269-En.doc: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/ilcmig_
[3]Domestic work was included in the list of
hazardous occupations for children (Notification No. S.O. 1742 (E) dated the 10th
October, 2006 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary)
[4]Available at
http://labour.nic.in/pib/PressRelease/ExtensionofRBYtoDomesticWorkers.pdf
[5] As explained later,
the legal age for emigration for unskilled and female domestic workers is 30
years. They require an emigration clearance to travel at which time they are
also required to produce a work contract from the employer that gives the
details of the employer and the wages to be paid.
[7] ‘Pushed’ is the term presently used and
understood to mean that palms are greased at emigration at the airport
[8] The “embassy”
refers to what is known as the ‘Kasargod Embassy’, a centre run by a network of
unregistered agents that assists migrant workers in trouble to return.
[12] Amended in 2011 to
become the Interstate Migrant Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions
of Service) Act 1978 in order to make it gender neutral
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