Shame: Middle class India duping domestic help of Rs 18,000 cr every yr

On 1 October, the Delhi media reported the plight of a 15-year-old domestic help who was rescued from a Vasant Kunj house by cops and activists the previous evening with a deep gash in her head and severe knife and dog bite injuries. The same day, South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong’s domestic helps were “very disappointed and angered” by the government’s decision to increase their minimum wage by just 2.3 percent to HK$4010. That is more than R 30,000 a month. India has its own minimum wage legislation. Both Centre and states can fix these wages in various sectors for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers. If one is refused minimum wages, he or she can complain to labour inspectors or respective trade unions. Section 22 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 says that contravention of the rules formed under the Act is punishable with fine and imprisonment which may extend to period of six months and payment of arrears by the employer. [caption id=“attachment_1156837” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Domestic helps are not covered under any minimum wage rule. Reuters[/caption] But domestic helps are not covered under any minimum wage rule, except in Karnataka where they are entitled to at least Rs 191 daily. For 26 days, that works out to be Rs 4,966 a month. This, however, does not take into account the cost of living in big cities, such as Bangalore that employ most domestic helps. Delhi, our only city state, is a case in point where the minimum monthly wage for unskilled workers in any sector – the list did not mention domestic helps though – was raised from Rs 7,722 to Rs 8,086 this month. It is perhaps pointless to compare the status of our domestic helps to their counterparts in Hong Kong or Singapore where minimum wage ranges between Rs 23,000 and Rs 30,000. But there is no reason to deny them the minimum wage for unskilled or even semi-skilled labourers. At least in the big cities, if we follow the Delhi benchmark, they deserve to be paid a minimum of Rs 8,000 a month. In practice, a domestic help in India earns anything between Rs 1000 and Rs 6000, depending on where she works and if she is a live-in, full-timer or part-timer working in multiple homes. Except in a few posh housing societies and neighbourhoods of Delhi national capital region, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh, their average monthly wage remains below Rs 2000. Employers who pay more often pay directly to placement agencies. There is nothing in lieu of annual or weekly leave forgone because helps, particularly the live-ins, are rarely entitled to any. There is no way to tell how many are employed as domestic helps in India. Estimates vary wildly, from 90 million to 4.2 million (NSSO, 2004-5). But if India’s 300 million-strong middle class population makes for at least 60 million households and if even half of those employs at least one domestic help, we are looking at a 30 million-strong workforce. At a conservative average of Rs 6000 per month, we are duping them of Rs 18,000 crore every year; year after year. The actual figure may well be double or triple that amount. Women and children are the bulk of this workforce and are vulnerable to torture and abuse. It is illegal to employ children below 14 years. At the same time, there is no denying the reality that the domestic help sector is vital for the livelihood of millions of poor families who are desperate to send any member out to earn whatever little possible. Also, not all of us can get over our ingrained dependence on ‘servants and maids’ overnight. The practice may be a necessary evil but domestic helps deserve secure work atmosphere, reasonable entitlements such as leave, insurance and other basic benefits. While the government must step in to reform the sector and make schemes such as medical and retirement funds mandatory, the urban, educated and affluent employers have no excuse for treating their helps as bonded labour and pay a pittance just because they can. While cribbing about the culture of corruption among the ruling elite, the middle class should also look inward. In the last decade alone, it has directly duped some of India’s poorest of hundreds of thousands of crores, certainly more than what the coal scam is worth. It is never an excuse that nobody (read a regulatory authority) was looking. Probity begins at home.