UNB, Dhaka :
The Unnayan Onneshan, an independent multidisciplinary think tank, has called for codification of domestic workers as labourers and award of consequential entitlement of rights enshrined in the core labour standards.
The domestic workers have historically remained voiceless, economically devalued, socially discriminated and led downcast lives.
Debunking the orthodox myths, the think tank builds five analytical properties of the domestic workers based on ground realities.
“The domestic workers are unseen; engaged in production, not recipient of consumption goods; involved in public spheres, despite functioning in private spaces; not unique affective labourers, but toiling in employment relationship; and exploited and high surplus value is extracted through wage differentials.”
The first-ever nationwide survey conducted on domestic workers by the research organisation has revealed that a domestic worker gives labour on an average of 58.1 hours per week, more than four hours of agriculture and non-agriculture sector workers, and fetches less than 1.27 times of wage of an agricultural labourer and 2.09 times of an average garment worker.
The survey found that an average income of a domestic worker in a month is Tk 2535.76 whereas the minimum wage of a garment industry labourer is Tk 5300.00 for the same period.
Commenting that the differentiations in wages remain complex due to multiple determinants, the Unnayan Onneshan pointed out that daily average wages are Tk 114.44, Tk 74.86, Tk 37.32, Tk 47.75, Tk 55.64, Tk 64.76, Tk 55.99 for divisions of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur respectively.
The Unnayan Onneshan, an independent multidisciplinary think tank, has called for codification of domestic workers as labourers and award of consequential entitlement of rights enshrined in the core labour standards.
The domestic workers have historically remained voiceless, economically devalued, socially discriminated and led downcast lives.
Debunking the orthodox myths, the think tank builds five analytical properties of the domestic workers based on ground realities.
“The domestic workers are unseen; engaged in production, not recipient of consumption goods; involved in public spheres, despite functioning in private spaces; not unique affective labourers, but toiling in employment relationship; and exploited and high surplus value is extracted through wage differentials.”
The first-ever nationwide survey conducted on domestic workers by the research organisation has revealed that a domestic worker gives labour on an average of 58.1 hours per week, more than four hours of agriculture and non-agriculture sector workers, and fetches less than 1.27 times of wage of an agricultural labourer and 2.09 times of an average garment worker.
The survey found that an average income of a domestic worker in a month is Tk 2535.76 whereas the minimum wage of a garment industry labourer is Tk 5300.00 for the same period.
Commenting that the differentiations in wages remain complex due to multiple determinants, the Unnayan Onneshan pointed out that daily average wages are Tk 114.44, Tk 74.86, Tk 37.32, Tk 47.75, Tk 55.64, Tk 64.76, Tk 55.99 for divisions of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal and Rangpur respectively.
