Emphasising the need for movements to tackle the broad range of concerns of domestic workers, and the urgent need for social policies and laws to provide a framework of protection of the dignity of domestic workers as workers.  Sr. Jeanne Devos, who spearheaded the National Domestic Workers` Movement (NDWM) based in Mumbai, gives her views on the significance of the movement toward an ILO Convention on domestic workers. An interview.

What is the genesis of the movement? Why did you think that domestic workers needed to be organised?

The belief that nothing will change unless the target group participates. Real changes don`t come through five-year projects. While projects highlight issues, real changes come about through movements like the dalit movement, for instance, where work has gone on for the last 50 years.

The idea of organising domestic workers came about when I was involved with the women`s movement in Tamil Nadu. Where other workers had only one employer to deal with, domestic workers dealt with 25 employers. So there was a certain commonality in the group. And the perspective of the employers was that domestic workers should be considered lucky. Before becoming domestic workers, they had nothing, no food, no shelter, and now they have it all, including TV!

If you listen to the workers, you find that they get only the leftover food or that which has gone bad, and they stay in the kitchen, verandah or staircase or sometimes even in the toilet.

So here were two different perspectives, and I realised that, as a society and as women, we have never listened to domestic workers.

Domestic workers compete fiercely with one another, for even as less as Rs 5. There were no contracts. So my first task was to foster a group feeling or identity among domestic workers and listen to them. I started with 23 groups in Dindigal (Tamil Nadu) in 1984. There was no movement yet, I just tried to listen to them and give them a voice.

And they were a dynamic group. As I shared their perspective, their pain, I found a denial of even basic human rights. People slogged all day yet, sometimes, their money was not given; they had no option but to work even when sick. It seemed like a contemporary form of slavery. At that time, I didn`t know that they have no labour rights whatsoever.

What are the major issues/concerns of NDWM?

Basically there are three main objectives of the movement.

• Dignity of domestic work: Society looks down upon it and has internalised the stigma, so much so that domestic workers themselves are affected by it. An air hostess does the same kind of work but is not looked down upon, so why look down upon domestic work? We`d like to stress on the dignity of work and person, so the point is not to do away with domestic work.
• Following a rights-based approach: The right to get a just wage, leave, social security
• Empowerment: Leadership training to get rights, not just labour rights

So we are more than a union, a movement...the right to water, the right to information, all of it matters.

What is the process of organisation adopted by the movement?

Area-wise, small groups are formed in a locality. Every group has a leader. These groups organise themselves around whatever issue is important to them. Sometimes, the issue is ration cards, sometimes water, and sometimes the right to information; there is discussion around the issue and then collaboration.

In Mumbai alone, there are 200 such groups. These groups meet on a regular basis and there is tremendous solidarity among them. The leadership comes from within the groups and it is fantastic, given that there is no education or formal schooling.

We also undertake capacity building programmes among the groups: leadership skills, public speaking, rights on health, educating their own children and ban on child labour.

What are the major demands of the movement?

• Recognition of domestic work as work. Specific rights for domestic work with provision for supervision in the privacy of homes.
• Registration of workers/employers
• Ban child labour in domestic work

We want a national legislation. In 1989, a bill was drafted to recognise domestic work as work, provide minimum wages, holidays and social security to domestic workers but this bill never saw the light of day due to vested interests. Even the excuses were so lame. They say we will not know who the employers are.

Seven states have provided for minimum wages for domestic work. We are currently in the process of lobbying for a bill for Minimum Wages for domestic work in Maharashtra. We want social security for domestic workers and a Welfare Board. We have begun consultations with lawyers, corporators, MLAs and other stakeholders.

Once the bill comes into effect, how will you ensure its implementation?

A strong movement of domestic workers will demand it. A bill without a movement is no use.

What would you say are the overall achievements of the movement in the last 22 years?

When we began, we were working for domestic workers, now we work with them and soon they will work for themselves.

I have seen the strength and solidarity of domestic workers. They may have no academic background but have tremendous values of life. We have been able to harness their solidarity for one another and for others over the years. Recently 270 women came together spontaneously in Badlapur to protest against the ill treatment of a domestic worker. When the Mumbai bomb blasts took place, domestic workers were on the spot with buckets of water.

The domestic workers we work with are now empowered to bring to our notice children employed in homes. They even participate in rescuing children. Recently, when the police refused to register a case of sexual harassment of a domestic worker, a rally was taken out.

We have also had three very successful campaigns. The first was on the ban of child labour in domestic work. The second was an anti-trafficking campaign, under which, in Jharkhand and other source states, we have started pre-departure training, so we are not against migration per se. The third has been a media campaign through billboards, posters, TV and radio due to which at least 40 per cent people now feel that domestic work is work, have started respecting it and have refused to hire children for domestic work.

What are the constraints in organising domestic workers?

Resistance from the decision-makers. Not a single bill has been fully accepted. Minimum wages for domestic workers have been set only in seven states. We want domestic work to be recognised as work.

The attitude of employers is a stumbling block. They say we will give Rs 5 but don`t ask for rights.

The attitude of society at large regarding child labour. Fifty per cent of the people still feel that child labour is the solution to poverty. However, working at such young ages impairs brain development in children; so society does not think ahead that it actually leads to the impoverishment of society.

What are the challenges that the movement faces now and in the coming years?

Implementation of the ban on child labour in domestic work, recognition of domestic workers as workers, and putting the leadership of the movement in the hands of workers. Just now it is probably 30 per cent. I would like it to be 99 per cent.

What is the nature of your interaction with central trade unions/other unions?

We are on friendly terms with other trade unions with working relationships in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Most of the unions are not very active on the issue of domestic workers though. But we are alert to political links and do not want to be used by political parties. This is a human rights issue; we would like to have a union free of political links.

What is the importance of the ILO focus on domestic workers and the suggestion of a Convention?

The decision of the ILO in March 2008 to put on the agenda of the 99th Session (2010) of the International Labour Conference an item on `Decent work for domestic workers`, leading to the possible adoption of a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation is, for domestic workers in India, very important. After many years of difficult struggle for the recognition of domestic workers, we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Indeed, this initiative may be the beginning of a real lasting change for domestic workers around the world.

NDWM has worked closely with the ILO and with the Ministry of Labour in India to draft a paper to assist the government in completing an ILO questionnaire on domestic work and its regulation. In many of our states, various groups and leaders are responding to this questionnaire. On the initiative of the Ministry of Labour, we have shared the experiences of domestic workers, and provided information on their situation and analyses of the relevant existing national legislations and regulations.

Right from its start-25years ago-the NDWM has been working for the elimination of poverty through struggle for decent work for domestic workers.  This was strengthened in 2000 by the acceptance of the millennium development goals by the international community. NDWM would never have dreamed of an ILO proposal for decent work for domestic work. The plan to work toward a formal ILO instrument for the 2011 ILC serves as a green signal to our further efforts, and proves that in a process of working together, change is possible. Many domestic workers are realising the importance of defending their work conditions (for the first time) and are demanding that their rights as dignified workers be recognised.

This interview is an updated version of an interview published in Labour File, "Women in Unions: Breaking the Male Bastion, Vol. 5, Issue 6, September-December 2007."  The interview was conducted by Sujana Krishnamoorthy, a Mumbai-based freelance researcher.