By Nabamita Mitra
Case1: A 34-year-old professional and single mother of a two-year-old child is at her wits end to find a solution to her problem — how to balance between office and home without a help to take care of her daughter. She has been unsuccessfully looking for domestic help for the past six months now.
Case 2: A teenager employed by a lawyer in the city was tortured and sexually abused by her employers and outsiders who would often visit the house. The trauma was so deep that the girl, even months after rescue from the nightmare, could remember neither the faces of the assaulters nor the assault meted on her.
The cases are vignettes of oddities of the so-called symbiotic society we live in. Flashes of news reports about violence against domestic workers and tirades of complaints against errant maids are parallel problems which have no solution till date.
Janice Lyngdoh, a working mother of two children, says she recruited three helps in three years. “Why is it difficult to keep a worker even if you are ready to pay and accept them as family members,” she thinks aloud.
Lyngdoh is not the only one who raises this question. Several working women, most of whom are single mothers, that Sunday Shillong spoke to flags almost similar problems. “Even at office I would think about how to get a help. Every familiar face I come across on the road has to embarrassingly encounter my query, ‘do you know any maid’? They are either amused at my helplessness or they empathise and inform about a similar situation at home,” says Jennifer KC, a 34-year-old professional and single mother.
It is a double-edged sword where both poor domestic workers and middle-class employers are the targets. When asked to solve the riddle of who is worse off, Wanpynhun Kharsantiew of the Ferrando Transit Shelter Home in Mawlai said after a few seconds’ silence, “It is indeed difficult to say. But considering the economic status of the two parties, I would always say it is the domestic workers who are at the receiving end.”
Ill treatment, less salary or non-payment on various pretext, no holiday are some of the common problems that domestic workers face. “Our objective is to ensure dignity, security and justice for domestic workers,” says Sister Teresa Salemthangi, regional coordinator of NE Regional Domestic Workers’ Movement (NERDWM).
Ferrando Transit is part of the NERDWM, a branch of a national organisation, which is fighting for the rights of domestic helps. It has over 6,000 workers registered with it. The Ferrando team also rescues maids in distress and minor workers.
Elaborating on her statement, Kharsantiew said most of the domestic helps are either minors or women and their safety and security is always a cause for concern. She narrated a case from 2015 when the Ferrando team rescued a 14-year-old child from a household in the city.
“The child was not tortured but was overworked. The household promised to pay for her education and therefore she was not paid in cash. When we inquired the case, we found that the girl was studying in an SSA school, which is free. So the child’s employers were neither spending a rupee on her education nor paying her salary,” said Kharsantiew.
“We are against payment in kind. A domestic help should be paid in cash. That way there is little scope for helps to be gulled into working for free,” she added.
With skewed distribution of wealth, expensive education and lack of proper welfare measures, child labour remains a perpetual blight. Many parents send their children to opulent families as domestic helps hoping that an extra worker in the family would alleviate the economic distress to some extent. But it is always a hard bargain.
“Children and teenagers are the worst victims. They often land up in the wrong house and tortured and cheated,” said Kharsantiew and added that a welfare board for domestic helps is necessary.
“There is welfare board for construction workers, most of whom are men. Then why not for domestic helps most of whom are women?”
There are around 20,000 domestic workers in the city and not all of them are registered. Kharsantiew said registration for domestic workers is as necessary as that of employers “to ensure security for both parties”.
The organisation is also demanding fixed wage for domestic helps as it was done neighbouring Assam and other states in the country. In Meghalaya, the fixed wage was Rs 184 a day that was revised to Rs 189, “which is too less and is not properly implemented”, said Elbina Mary Nongkhlaw, treasurer of the Meghalaya Domestic Workers’ Forum that started in 2003.
“Education is the most expensive affair and often our children drop out of school because of financial problems. Also, to meet ends we have to work for multiple households and hardly get time to even look after our babies. As a mother, it is painful to ignore your duties at home. Though we have not quoted any amount for fixed wage but the Government should consider the living cost in the city,” said Nongkhlaw.
A government notification of May 25 revised the wages for workers, which include all forms of labourers, as per their skill effective from April. While the lowest is Rs 189, the highest is Rs 235. In Assam, the fixed wage is Rs 35 per hour for cooking and looking after babies and the elderly. For other household chores, the rate is Rs 30 per hour. For part-time workers the rate varies from Rs 7,200 to Rs 8,400 per month.
When pointed out that if wages are raised, it would be a pocket pinch for middle class families, Kharsantiew nodded in agreement but added that with improved living conditions and education, children of domestic workers can break out of the cycle of poverty and in the long run, “our society will benefit”.
The organisation has submitted its memorandum to the State labour commi-ssioner and the Government has sought a month’s time before meeting them.
Labour Commissioner B. Mawlong said while the fixed wage is for all labourers, including construction workers, the domestic workers are demanding a separate wage rate for themselves. “There is no specific act for domestic workers. So at this stage it is difficult to come to a decision so fast and we need to have several meetings and discussions to come to a conclusion. However, so far we have not received any complaint of under-payment,” he said.
Mawlong said in their meeting with central government officials last December, they were informed that the Centre would come up with wage rates for domestic helps but no time frame was mentioned. At the same time he assured that people cannot pay less than the minimum wage fixed by the State Government notification.
Recruitment agencies
On the need for agencies for recruitment of domestic helps, Kharsantiew said agencies in other cities have become transit points for trafficking. “This is a reason why we do not need agencies.”
The Ferrando team as well as the Forum also hold counselling sessions where domestic workers are taught how to behave at workplace. “Households often complain that their helps spend more time on phone and go on leave without notice. We tell workers not to behave like this and that there is something called work ethics. They are also told about family planning,” says Nongkhlaw.
Besides high salary and other benefits, the domestic workers’ movement is also demanding right to dignity at workplace. “They are poor but humans. But some people do not show minimum respect to these workers and instead crush their morale. We are helping these poor women to live a life of dignity, which is every individual’s right,” said Kharsantiew.
