Rights of domestic workers in our society

MNA Editorial Desk: Domestic workers provide a vital service in our society but little do we care about the rights of our domestic workers. They work day and night performing daily household chores. We cannot even think of passing a single day without them in our urban lifestyle.

Domestic workers are of two types; those who work inside of our homes i.e. household workers/maids, caretaker etc. and those who work outside of the home i.e. car driver, security guard/gate-man etc. Most of the domestic helps working inside the home are women while most of the drivers and guards are overwhelmingly men.

In the lack of any formal recognition as laborers, domestic workers suffer from numerous types of abuse, such as longer working hours, and verbal and physical abuse.

More than 2 million poor women and children are employed as domestic laborers in Bangladesh. It is a punitive truth that they work in a legal and policy vacuum, a result of the national labor laws of 2006 and 2014, both of which exclude domestic workers from legal coverage.

The only piece of legislation that comes closer to governing domestic workers is the Domestic Servants’ Registration Ordinance 1961. Although the 1961 ordinance requires self-registration of domestic workers with local police stations in Dhaka, it fails to offer any legal redress against abuse and harsh working conditions.

However, Bangladesh is one of the few countries in the world, citizens of which are involved in domestic works in foreign countries also. For these, international labor standard for domestic workers is essential for them who work in home and abroad.

The female household workers face many problems. Both physical torture and sexual harassment are very common. From the household chores, the house maids do not acquire any special skills which they can use in any other productive sector in the near future seeking for a better livelihood. Thus, they are obliged to look for similar type of work in the future.

House maids perform typical domestic chores such as cooking, ironing, washing, cleaning and grocery shopping. In many cases, maids also look after the children and infants in a household while some also take care of the elderly and people with disabilities.

As domestic workers have become an essential part of our urban social system, we cannot change it within a very short period of time. So, as a member of the society, we have to be careful to support their physical needs by providing them with nutritious food, as well as their psychological needs by giving them access to basic education.

The government should also take steps to ensure the rights of the domestic laborers and to prevent the abuse and violence against them. They are the citizens of Bangladesh too.