Abstract
This paper is an attempt towards analysing the demand for domestic workers specifically in urban India, wherein we intend to verify a range of hypotheses pertaining to demand for domestic workers in urban households. The analysis exploits the information obtained in Unemployment and Employment Survey and Consumption Expenditure Survey provided by the National Sample Survey Organisation, to assess the significance of domestic work and to characterise the demand for domestic workers across Indian states. We supplement the discussion with insights from a micro-level enquiry. While it may be otherwise understood that rising economic affluence is the driving force behind this phenomenon, a critical analysis at the household level indicates the complex dynamic of economic affluence and rising dependency determines engagement of domestic workers in urban Indian households. A micro-level study conducted in the National Capital Region throws further light on the nature of demand for domestic workers in urban areas. A survey among employers reveals that employment of domestic workers has been customary for a class of population. However, other household characteristics like women’s employment and life cycle of a household also shape the demand for a domestic worker. Nature of employment, broadly categorised as live-out/day work or live-in work, is also observed to be influenced by economic class and household specific needs.
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Source NSS employment–unemployment survey 2004–2005 (61st round) and 2011–2012 (68th round)
Source NSS employment–unemployment survey 2004–2005 (61st round) and 2011–2012 (68th round)
Source NSS consumption expenditure survey 2004–2005 (61st round) and 2011–2012 (68th round)
Source field survey
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Notes
Regulation has been brought in piece meal at different levels. Some states have prescribed minimum wages for domestic work (see Neetha 2013). After much struggle, domestic workers are brought under the law against sexual harassment at the workplace. Though domestic workers have Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008, the coverage is negligible.
Domestic workers are included in the employment category of domestic personnel which comprise of a range of activities representing domestic work. The used sub-categories are as follows: housemaid/servant, cook and governess/babysitter.
We use usual principal and subsidiary status (ps + ss).
National Occupational Classification of Workers (NCO)—2004 also categories domestic workers under various heads. Due to availability of information at the broader level including both domestic and institutional workers, we were unable to use NCO classification for analysing extent of employment in paid domestic work in India. For other discussions on ambiguities in NCO classification, see Neetha (2004).
Based on Primary Census Abstract 2011.
NCT of Delhi, Gurgaon (sub-region of Haryana) and Noida (sub-region of Uttar Pradesh) are covered in our micro-level study.
Pearson’s Chi-square test was used.
Pearson’s Chi-square test was used.
Working age is taken to be 25 ≤ age ≤ 45; elderly age is taken as 45 and above.
Pearson’s Chi-square test was used.
The study was conducted for the first author’s MPhil dissertation.
This paper presents information on type of workplace and work arrangements only. Then, we proceed to analyse the demand as narrated by the employers themselves.
Out of 424 jobs, such information could be collected only 362 jobs.
About two-fifths of the employers interviewed were above 50 years of age, 37% were between 31 and 40 years, 14% were between 41 and 50 years and only three employers were 30 years or less.
Earlier works done in Kolkata and Delhi have also highlighted the indispensability of the domestic worker. Qayum and Ray (2016) point out the struggles faced by the households in Kolkata while adjusting to the ‘modern’ world. There were shifts from male domestic worker to female domestic worker, from live-in workers to part time workers and the employers required spatial management in the restricted spaces of the flats. Yet servants were essential for managing the household and child care, especially for working. For those aspiring for middle class status, hiring a domestic worker even for an hour or two a day allowed a sense of achieving such status. Similar essentiality of domestic worker was observed in the study carried out by Jagori (2010) in Delhi. The employers interviewed in that report added that it was possible to hire domestic workers as they were available at affordable rates.
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Acknowledgements
This paper has benefitted immensely from the inputs offered by Prof. Praveena Kodoth, and the suggestions and comments as regards analysis received from Dr. Upasak Das are highly appreciated.
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Jain, S., Mishra, U.S. Demand for Domestic Workers in India: Its Characteristics and Correlates. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 61, 659–679 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-019-0150-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-019-0150-y