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Conditions of Female Domestic Workers – A Case Study of Ghaziabad District
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Purpose: Over the years domestic workers in India have increased rapidly. In today's India, especially in urban India, domestic worker plays a very important role. The paper attempts to explore and understand the status of women domestic workers in urban India by studying the women domestic workers of Ghaziabad city. The paper highlights the demographic outline of the women domestic workers in terms of age, educational status, caste status and marital status etc.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The socio-economic position of women working as domestic help in the city of Ghaziabad is analyzed to understand their average monthly income, reasons why they are working, health issues, type of work they do, safety concerns etc. The paper also discusses the major concerns of the workers during the lockdown period of 2020 due to COVID -19. Finally, suggestions are given to improve their conditions and future policy decisions regarding them.
Findings: Author concludes that a model contract specifying the working conditions, wages based on tasks performed, duration of work, paid leaves per month etc. has become an absolute essential for both the employers and the domestic workers. Paper advocates that adequate mechanism also needs to be in place so that nonpayment of dues or any kind of sexual harassment faced during work gets reported. Domestic work being temporal in nature, no household can legally be forced to keep a person in work if they don't need them or if the person’s work is not up to the expectation.
Keywords
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