SOCIAL WELFARE SCHEMES FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS IN INDIA

Domestic Workers in India face the plight of low wages, insecure employment, exploitation and hostile working conditions. Most of them, being migrant workers, become ineligible to avail benefits of state-specific schemes governed by the labour department. Even otherwise, the social security benefits for domestic workers in India are minimal, both in the public as well as private sector. It becomes necessary to identify the loopholes in existing governance mechanism to direct domestic work towards formalization, similar to the work in construction or transportation sector. Also,standards for minimum wage rate and adequate working conditions must be set for domestic workers to protect them from being at the mercy of the employer.