Increase of Urban Women’s Work Participation and Quality of Employment in Paid-Domestic Work: A Survey in Delhi-NCR and Kolkata-Asansol

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-426
Author(s):  
Tanuka Endow ◽  
Rajarshi Majumder ◽  
Preet Rustagi ◽  
Nandini Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Work Participation ◽  
Double Burden ◽  
Household Decision ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Female Work Participation

A rise in female work participation in the urban sector creates a vacancy for care work at the household level and triggers a second round of job creation for females. In order to explore whether this process gives rise to decent employment for the female domestic workers (FDWs), a primary survey was conducted among domestic workers in the cities of Delhi, Noida, Kolkata and Asansol. The workers surveyed are, by and large, in low-wage, precarious employment, without social security and have an exhausting routine of work inside and outside the home. Apart from the lack of job security, sickness and disease also add to the uncertainty. Given the double burden of income-earning work and own domestic work, the FDW is crucially dependent on her health and strength, and often incurs health-related expenditure. But they contribute to their household income and have some autonomy in household decision-making. The informal working conditions for these workers, the need for social security and their low wage levels are all areas that need serious attention from policy-makers. Health insurance and pension plans would benefit the domestic workers, given that their work involves a requirement for robust health and the strength that youth brings with it.

Organizing in the Shadows: Domestic Workers in the Netherlands

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margriet Kraamwinkel
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Residence Permit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cash Payment ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Devil

In 2009, a small group of domestic workers joined FNV Bondgenoten, the largest Dutch trade union in the private sector and affiliated with the Dutch trade union confederation FNV. The group that joined consisted mainly of women immigrant workers, many of whom did not have a residence permit. FNV’s policy is that we organize workers and do not ask for passports. Still, a group like this brought to light several problems for FNV, both practical and fundamental. The Article identifies three types of problems. The first set of problems concerns the invisibility of domestic workers. Domestic workers work in private houses and are leery of talking to strangers if they don’t have residence permits. This demanded new organizing tactics from the sector, like asking women to bring a friend to a meeting and joining churches. A cash payment of membership fees system was devised, its administration done by handwriting. At the same time, the public debate on immigration toughened; immigrants without residence permits (“illegal aliens”) in particular were depicted as somewhere between a profiteer and the devil. This debate also took place within FNV. The second set of problems is defined by the traditional views in Dutch society on domestic work. The group chose to become union members, since they wanted to better their position in the labor market. Dutch law on domestic work excludes them from full protection of labor and social security law. The inclusion of domestic work in labor and social security law is contrary to cultural and historical traditions and views and therefore contentious. The third set of problems is caused by the connectedness of labor and social security law and immigration law. Domestic workers in the Netherlands work in the shadows in two ways: by not having a residence permit, and by not being protected by labor and social security law. The result of our campaign is that a group of publicly financed care workers will be better protected, but the group of domestic workers that fought for ILO Convention 189 will still be excluded from our labor and social security law and not be able to qualify for a residence permit.

Paid Domestic Work: Gender and the Informal Economy in Mexico

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Rojas-García ◽  
Mónica Patricia Toledo González
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Labor Relation ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Las Mujeres

A consideration of paid domestic work as an aspect of the informal economy in Mexico identifies some distinctive features: a paternalistic view rather than a labor relation based on a contract, a reluctance on the part of the state to regulate this employment area, and a devaluation of this work as something largely performed by women who are poor and of rural or indigenous origin. The lack of social security is almost universal among paid domestic workers, and coverage is one of the principal demands of organizations formed in defense of their rights. Un análisis del trabajo doméstico remunerado como un aspecto de la economía informal en México muestra algunos rasgos distintivos: una visión paternalista por encima de una relación laboral basada en un contrato, una renuencia por parte del Estado a regular esta ocupación laboral, y una devaluación de dicho trabajo como algo que realizan en gran parte las mujeres pobres y de origen rural o indígena. La falta de un seguro social es casi universal entre los trabajadores domésticos remunerados, y su otorgamiento constituye una de las principales exigencias por parte de las organizaciones en defensa de los derechos de dichos empleados.

“We cannot discriminate against someone without an eye or a leg … But I do look at obesity”: Statistical discrimination and employers’ recruitment strategies at housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
David Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Recruitment Strategies ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Demographic Profile ◽  
Job Seeking ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Personal Skills

The landscape of paid domestic work has changed considerably in recent years with the growth in the number of housecleaning service companies in South Africa and elsewhere. Housecleaning service companies transform domestic work into a service economy where trained domestic workers render a professional cleaning service to clients. In South Africa, little is known about the factors that employers at housecleaning service companies take into consideration during the selection and recruitment process. A key feature of paid domestic work is the gender, class and race constructions of domestic workers, the vast majority of whom are women, usually women of colour, from low socio-economic backgrounds. Whether we are seeing a change in the demographic profile of domestic workers with the growth of housecleaning service companies remains unclear. This paper therefore focuses on the recruitment strategies of employers at selected housecleaning service companies in Johannesburg in an attempt to shed light on the challenges that jobseeking domestic workers may face. Open-ended interviews with managers revealed that gender, race, age, long-term unemployment, and technical and personal skills of job-seeking domestic workers have a strong impact on the recruitment process, while immigration status plays a somewhat reduced role. This paper concludes that housecleaning service companies have not changed the demographic profile of domestic workers in South Africa yet, and that paid domestic work is still predominantly a black woman’s job.

Assessment of Regional Inequality in Female Work Participation: Measurement of Disparity and Determinants

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Sheuli Ray ◽  
Manoj Debnath
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Work Participation ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Female Work Participation

The regional difference of complex Indian social structure and customs have a different impact on the nature of women’s work participation. The present study aims at unravelling the influence of social, cultural and economic forces in differentiating the level of women work participation in different eco-regions of West Bengal. The study is based purely on secondary sources and data have been collected from the Census of India. It is in the rural areas that the female work participation is directly linked to agriculture and allied activities and the study confines itself to an understanding of work participation of women only in the rural areas. The modern technological implication as a result of green revolution has a worse impact on women work participation particularly in the South Bengal plain and some parts of East Rarh Plain region. The high gender gap is noticed in Nadia district located in the middle part of South Bengal Plain causes very high withdrawn of female from there. Effect of socioeconomic variables, work participation of Scheduled component in main economic activity is also varied from the non-scheduled component. Non-scheduled worker participated more in non-agricultural sector rather than the scheduled counter parts. Subsequently, the low growth rate of female work participation represents a distress picture in work force structure which is a cause of worried also.

scholarly journals PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM PEKERJA MIGRAN PENATA LAKSANA RUMAH TANGGA (PLRT) DI LUAR NEGERI OLEH NEGARA DITINJAU DARI KONSEP TANGGUNG JAWAB NEGARA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koesrianti
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Government ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

<p align="center"><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong></p><p><em>This research discusses the legal protection of migrant workers, especially, women migrant domestic workers. Due to the nature and characteristic of domestic work, the migrant domestic workers are subject to violence, abuses, discrimination and unfair treatment when they are in destination countries. The most vulnerable group among migrant workers is women migrant domestic workers because they are women. Accordingly, the government and the stakeholders should give protection to the women migrant domestic workers regardless their status (legal or illegal) as they are stay beyond national jurisdiction of sending state.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>legal protection, Migrant workers, domestic, state responsibility.</em></p><p align="center"><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p>Penelitian ini mengkaji bentuk-bentuk perlindungan hukum yang diberikan kepada pekerja migran PLRT di luar negeri. Pekerja migran PLRT karena karakteristiknya merupakan kelompok yang sangat rentan terhadap perlakuan <em>abuse</em>, diskriminatif, dan ketidak-adilan ketika bekerja di luar negeri. Kelompok paling rentan diantara pekerja migrant adalah TKW PLRT karena keperempuannya. Konsep tanggung jawab Negara mengharuskan pemerintah memberikan perlindungan kepada TKI terlepas dari status mereka, baik legal atau illegal karena mereka berada diluar yurisdiksi Negara pengirim</p><p><strong>Kata Kunci: </strong>Perlindungan hukum, TKI, PLRT, Tanggung Jawab Negara.</p>

scholarly journals Self-rated health in Brazilian adults and elderly: Data from the National Household Sample Survey 2008

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doroteia Aparecida Höfelmann ◽  
Leila Posenato Garcia ◽  
Lúcia Rolim Santana de Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Physical Impairment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Piped Water ◽  
Health Related

Objective. To investigate prevalence of poor self-rated health and its association with individual and household-level characteristics among adults and elderly in Brazil. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional study with Brazilian National Household Sample Survey 2008 (n=257 816). Crude and multilevel-adjusted Poisson regression models were fitted. Results. After adjusted analysis, poor self-rated health was significantly associated with higher household income, living alone, not having piped water nor garbage collection, lower education, not having health insurance, female sex, higher age, being a current or previous smoker, physical inactivity, having chronic diseases, having physical impairment. Subjects living in rural areas also had higher prevalence of poor selfrated health. The factors most strongly associated with the outcome were physical impairment and reporting three or more chronic diseases. Conclusions. Socioeconomic, health related behaviors, and physical health were associated with poor self-rated health.

Is outsourcing better? Clients' views on contracting in domestic cleaning services

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David du Toit ◽  
Lindy Heinecken
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Worker ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
The People ◽  
Routine Tasks

PurposeThe nature of paid domestic work is changing, with the growth in companies delivering domestic cleaning services. Few studies have looked at why people opt to use these services and the underlying drivers. As with the outsourcing of non-core tasks in businesses, outsourcing domestic work is motivated by similar, yet different reasons, which have to do with the personal and private nature of domestic employment. This study aims to establish the reasons why “clients”, who were former employers of domestic servants, opted to outsource domestic work to a domestic cleaning service provider.Design/methodology/approachGiven the limited research on domestic cleaning services in South Africa, a mixed-methods research approach is used.FindingsThe findings showed that there are three key motivations: the nature of the domestic cleaning service supplier, the services rendered by domestic workers and the tripartite employment relationships. These three benefits imply that clients have access to functional and numerical flexibility, unlike employing a domestic worker directly. This study contributes to the literature on outsourcing and domestic work by showing that clients not only look to change the economic structure of the relationship with domestic workers, but it allows them to psychologically and emotionally distance themselves from domestic workers.Research limitations/implicationsThis study shows that some people are no longer willing to have a relationship with the people who clean their homes, and that they believe it is simply not worth the effort to maintain a relationship. This is an aspect that needs further research, as this is the one sphere where women are united in their plight, albeit from different worldviews. Thus, a limitation is that this study only focuses on clients' views of outsourcing. Have domestic workers employed by the outsourced domestic cleaning service supplier become just like assembly-line workers, where they are anonymous to their clients, performing routine tasks with little recognition from those whose homes they are servicing? Future studies could focus on domestic workers' views on outsourcing and the effects it has on their working conditions and employment relations.Originality/valueFirstly, studies mainly focus on the Global North where domestic work and outsourcing have different dynamics, regulation policies and social changes when compared to South Africa. Secondly, few studies have sought to establish why people shift from employing a domestic or care worker directly to an outsourced domestic agency when direct domestic help is available and affordable. Considering these shortcomings, this study aims to provide a better understanding of domestic cleaning service suppliers from the perspective of clients, often omitted from the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to establish what the benefits are for clients (former employers of domestic workers) who use domestic cleaning service suppliers.

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