Mazidur Rahman Biswas :
Domestic workers, especially women, arguably the most vulnerable class of workers in Bangladesh are easy prey to different kinds of abuses. While employing domestic workers of varying ages, there is a common practice especially in urban areas, as over 80 percent of them are underage girls, but there exists no such regulatory framework in terms of the minimum age of employment, fixed pay structure and working hours for these poor and vulnerable workers of our society.
According to human rights organisations, domestic workers are routinely subjected to violence as per the report of Ain o Salish Kenda (ASK), there have been huge number of reported cases of violence against domestic workers, of which cases of rape are very common and enormous in a country like ours. Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) lodged a case against the existing situation long ago, against which the Government had earlier promulgated an Ordinance for the registration of the Domestic workers, though the same does in no way touch any regulatory aspect not confer any rights or remedies to the domestic workers by acknowledging the rights of the domestic workers. Within the provisions of the Labour Act 2006, the ages of 14-18 incorporated automatically, however, recognition of which has largely been ineffective.
Bangladesh being a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a signatory to the Domestic Workers Convention 2011 that came into force on September 5, 2013 but even after about two decades it is yet to ratify the same. Bangladesh Cabinet approved the draft of National Policy, terming Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy in 2015, but this policy has failed totally to remove the irregularities, to outline minimum wage and working hours of such domestic workers.
In absence of any regulatory legal protection, hundreds and thousands of domestic women workers have been struggling to sustain themselves as well as their children with very low earnings. Many of them have been abandoned by their husbands. On top of that abuse and ill treatment to these workers by employers add never-ending episodes of painful experiences in their life.
Mention may be made here, that about two million people work as domestic workers across the country, according to a brief report on the project provided by Oxfam, where they outlined an increasing number of people are getting into the informal sector, with 78 per cent of them females. Besides, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) put the figure of child domestic workers in Bangladesh at 4.21 lakh, where they also recommended that women domestic workers needed to be provided training for skill development, and made aware of legal rights, under the project as funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.
To bring a qualitative change, the comprehensive report stressed on addressing the issues facing workers in the informal sector and suggested for bringing qualitative changes in their lives, even, many analysts suggested following this methodology while speaking in seminars and symposiums, organised by different forums. Earlier, a number of non-government organisations have taken up a baseline survey, where the findings emphasised upon improving the lives of domestic workers and their work experiences.
Many analysts, however, strongly stressed on humanitarian aspects pointing out that the domestic workers also be allowed to enjoy a weekly holiday and higher pay, as their lives have been shattered more during Covid-19 and after effects of the pandemic followed by multifarious global changes.
(The writer is a senior journalist).
