Recognising that the heterogeneity of informal work makes organising informal workers as a whole ineffective, Rajendra Ravi and Sunita recommend that the focus be on specific occupations. They detail the effectiveness of workers having a sense of collective identity, which increases their confidence and bargaining power with their employers, and the importance of being able to present organised resistance to employers, and weather reprisals and attacks.

Purpose and History of the Union

National Domestic Workers` Union (NDWU) has been mobilising unorganised workers around the issues of housing, employment and public transportation for the last few decades. We strongly believe that no individual or group can mobilise all the workers of the unorganised sector around a single issue or question.

Unorganised workers account for approximately 93 per cent of the total workforce in India, and the number is on the rise. Among these workers, the diversity and nature of their occupations means that the problems and challenges faced by any one group of workers are generally exclusive to them. Both the sheer size of this workforce and its heterogeneity, therefore, make it impossible-or rather, illogical-for a single organisation or union to mobilise them as a whole. It was with this understanding that we took up the cause of organising the domestic workers under the aegis of a union.

The recent rise of domestic workers as a distinct workforce is closely intertwined with the processes of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, which have deprived a large mass of people of their access to natural resources such as forests, land and the water. These efforts to empower capitalists to mine the ore and minerals from the land on which tribals live have led to the pauperisation of the tribal people. The tale of displacement is one of ruthless takeover of lands by corporate houses for mining and setting up special economic zones, reducing peasants to penury and destitution. The process has also been abetted by the increasing mechanisation of agricultural operations with the introduction of tractors, threshers and harvesters, which has resulted in a decrease in job opportunities for landless labourers. Currently, rural India is witnessing a serious crisis of livelihood for such deprived people, who for want of sustainable means of employment at home are forced to leave their homes and hearths and make a beeline for the big cities. Metros such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi and smaller cities such as Patna, Nagpur and Indore are some of their destinations. Sometimes, the search may take them as far off as the Gulf countries.

The other factor that contributes to the growth of the phenomenon of domestic workers is the fact that the middle class, the upper middle class and the elite living in cities find it hard to manage their domestic chores due to the increasing pressures of their own jobs. When they return home from their high pressure jobs, they can hardly spare time for their parents or children or household work. Sometimes, it is not so much a paucity of time that deters them from doing household jobs, but a simple matter of arrogance: washing linen, cleaning utensils, dusting and sweeping floors are considered undignified things to do. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the salary one earns and the indifference with which they treat domestic chores: the heftier the salary, the more indifferent towards housekeeping. When both the husband and the wife are working, they find it especially difficult to do without domestic help.

Demographically, the majority of domestic workers in Delhi are drawn from tribal dominant areas such as Jharkhand, Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bhilwara in Rajasthan. Nepal also figures as a sizable supplier of domestic workers in India. Placement agencies have significant networks in these areas and through them make available domestic workers to the potential employers. Placement agencies are not, however, the sole supplier of domestic workers. There are informal networks, and a majority of domestic workers find their employers through their relatives.

The category of domestic workers includes such persons who offer their services to employers at their residence. The sector also includes `housekeeping` workers, who are employed as cleaners at hospitals and institutions. A small number of domestic workers eke out an income by working part-time at two or more places. Often, such workers have a fixed work schedule and receive a certain amount of money for each job. However, the work profile of full-time domestic workers is seldom defined, making them prey to round-the-clock engagement. With work timings decided by the employer, they may be called by the employer at any time between 5 a.m. in the morning and 11-12 p.m. in the night. Such workers are expected to take care of chores such as sweeping and dusting along with the regular jobs such as washing the clothes and cleaning of utensils. That is to say, the full-time domestic worker must perform any work that an employer may demand. Thus, a domestic worker is asked to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner along with other tasks such as getting provisions from the market and taking care of the employer`s parents or children. The hapless worker gets neither a weekly off nor annual leave to visit his/her home. Usually, full-time workers are subject to subhuman treatment at the hands of their employers, reducing them to the status of slaves. The amount of time such workers spend at the employer`s home and the amount of work they do makes most common equations for determining remuneration demeaning.

Adding to their woes is the fact that they are contractual labourers. Rather than getting their wages directly from the employers for whom they work, they are paid through the agency of contractors, who, more often than not, get away with as much as half of the wages meant for the workers. For instance, a contractor receiving Rs 5,000 for the `housekeeper` will give only Rs 2,500 or Rs 3,000 to the worker and will pocket the rest. The institutions/homes, with the overt or covert consent of the contractors, will keep these workers at their premises for 12 hours a day, in violation of the fixed hours of duty.

A resisting worker is often dumped by the employer with false charges of his or her being involved in a case of theft. In such cases, workers are known to face physical punishment at the hands of the employer, making the workers at times lose their patience. Women domestic workers share such travails; however, being female, they are also vulnerable to other ordeals. While in some cases sexual harassment may become a routine trauma for a female worker, she is generally reduced to a captive, not being allowed to meet people outside her employer`s home. There have been reports of women domestic workers who, after becoming pregnant, have committed suicide to escape the stigma.

Illiterate and child domestic workers are all the more vulnerable. With an apathetic police and a blatant lack of any law to protect their rights, domestic workers seldom get justice in times of need. The legal measures employed by the police in the name of `police verification` often end up being a shield for the employer.

Placement agencies are in the business only to make fast money. It is a simple deal for them: they take commission from both the domestic workers and the employers. The workers` interests hardly figure in their scheme of things. In some cases, such placement agencies have been involved in sexual harassment of female workers yet they are never booked for these crimes. Unfortunately, the fact that domestic workers do not constitute a cohesive group lets their oppressors go scot-free. This also, in part, explains the lack of an organised resistance to the problem.

It is precisely in view of these fault lines that we decided to organise a national union of domestic workers. The idea is to draw the attention to the cause and explore effective measures to provide relief to them.

Organising Domestic Workers and Its Difficulties

We realised that the best way to approach domestic workers is to contact them at their residence. This was how we got to learn about their experiences and causes of displacement, their everyday struggles to find a foothold in the city and the challenges faced in the new place of work. These relationships, built around individuals, gradually coalesced into a collective whole, which, in turn helped people to come together, cutting across barriers of regional biases and linguistic differences. Both men and women forged a common identity, leading to a vigorous campaign for membership. Members put us in contact with other workers, paving the way for the expansion of our union. However, it was not an easy time for us because the workers would not trust us; they also feared that they would lose their jobs if they joined the union. There also existed the age-old fissures of caste, religion, region and the languages, as well as gender inequality, preventing the workers from sharing a common platform. The local residents also posed a constant threat to our efforts because they saw unionising as a challenge to their continued supremacy over the local power relations.

Protecting the Rights of Domestic Workers: Achievements

The efforts at unionising domestic workers have yielded tangible results, leading to the consolidation of the workers into an organisation. The identity cards issued to the workers by the union have empowered the workers. They feel connected to a larger group with a distinct collective identity, which gives the workers a legitimacy to settle disputes with their employers on respectable terms. The employers now find it increasingly hard to get away with their whims. Clearly, the potential employer fears an organised intervention in the event of a dispute with the worker. There is now a national alliance of domestic workers, which is a collective of various organisations and groups working among the domestic workers in different cities across India.  An initiative has also been launched to influence national policy measures on domestic workers under the aegis of this organisation. A memorandum has been submitted regarding the problems of domestic workers and an alternative draft Bill to the central ministry of labour. The union supports the proposed ILO Convention on domestic work, based on social, economic, cultural and gender equality.

Impact on Domestic Workers

The activities taken up by the union have had a wide-ranging impact on domestic workers, irrespective of whether they have membership of the union or otherwise. They confide in the union on issues ranging from wages to family disputes. The membership card carries a promise of collective help, in case of any dispute or problem. For instance, recently some female workers approached us and shared their problems regarding the non-payment of their wages by the placement agencies. Acting on the complaints, the union took the matter to the police station and filed a report. Later, the placement agencies had the union office vandalised by their goondas; however, joint resistance by the members of the union created pressure on the police, compelling them to provide for the security for the union office. The success was clearly a result of the organised resistance of the workers.