The huge domestic help industry in urban India finds a new twist in Bangalore. Women and child workers vulnerable to abuse by employers on the one hand and mushrooming 'servant shops' on the other have realised the benefits of unionising themselves here. Unorganised as they are, it's a difficult task getting together but they do manage occasional meetings under the aegis of kdwm or the Karnataka Domestic Workers Movement. To be guided on minimum wages, against discrimination and exploitation.
They have no legal rights and yet they are a mammoth workforce of 3,00,000 in Bangalore city alone, says kdwm co-ordinator Sister Celia. She has succeeded in contacting a mere 1,000 of them. In other parts of the state such as Mysore, Mangalore and Kolar, the movement has just taken shape, with its volunteers creating an awareness about the right to "personal dignity". "We have a network of local ngos—Navajeevan, Navodini, Ayna among others—that aims to help thousands of women domestic workers who live in subhuman conditions, getting wages of Rs 2.75 an hour though they ought to get, say, at least five times that. Treated with utter disdain, they lack the courage to speak up for they can be thrown out any moment without wages," says Sister Celia.
Among other activities, kdwm has staged several protest demonstrations to move the state government into passing The Karnataka Unorganised Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Work) Bill 2000. This bill asks for the recognition of domestic workers as "unorganised workers", and is awaiting an approval by the state legislature.
Significantly, the movement does not encourage either placements or propose alternative sources of employment. Says Sister Celia: "We don't take up placements because we could become a part of the clique of rich employers, and exploit these illiterate women. We don't suggest alternative employment because we cannot afford to provide them these jobs." For now though, the objective of the movement is to improve attendance at its meetings, because most members keep away for fear that they would be turned away by employers the next morning.