Vimala PDF
Vimala PDF
Vimala PDF
VIMALA.M.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
May I make use of this occasion to express my deep gratitude to the experts
of KRPLLD for their valuable suggestions.
I owe a great deal to my family members for their support during the work.
VIMALA.M.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
While women represent 50 per cent of the adult population and one
third of labour force, they perform nearly two - third of all working hours
and receives only one-tenth of the world income. Human Development
Report for the year 2000 on the amount of time that women and men spend
on market and non market activities by considering 31 countries reveals that
women work longer hours than men in nearly every country. Women carry
on average 53 per cent of total burden of work in developing countries and
51 per cent of that in industrial countries. Also, roughly two-third of
women’s total work time is spent in unpaid non system of national accounts
activities.
The plight of the women in unorganized sector is miserable as they work at extremely
low wages, with total lack of job security and unprotected by any government labour
legislations. The women workers in unorganized sector covers most of those activities
which are carried out by small and family enterprises, partly or wholly with family
labour, which are largely non- unionised. The most common characteristics of this sector
are the small size of establishment, often consisting of only one individual, with perhaps
a couple of hired workers, casual nature of employment, ignorant and illiterate workers,
superior and dominating employer and scattered nature of establishment.
Numerous studies have been made in the last few decades about the role of
women in emerging labour market. Haque 2 has analysed the concentration of women in
low paid occupations. He argued that the socio economic conditions of women workers
in South Asia are poor because they are concentrated in low paid occupations. This is
primarily because the society has discriminated against women by not allowing them to
act as major players in economic activities.
Nirmala Banerjee3 argues that the emerging labour market is likely to prove even more
problematic in the case of women workers than for the rest of Indian workers.
Jaya Arunachalam4 has an pinion that the issue of informal sector are common to the
developing countries, but have to beunderstood in the context where informal systems of
work are promoted and encouraged among the working poor. The character of this sector
is connected to highly exploitative irregular working conditions and wage
discriminations.
Atanu Thaker7 has made an enquiry in to women’s workforce participation and she
concluded that the proposal for participating in the workforce made by feminist literature
and the gender empowerment measure (Proposed by UNDP) may not empower the
women; rather it will burden
the women more and more. The paper prepared by the Sandra Rothboeck and Surthi
Acharya 8 tries to argue that the gender segregation of jobs has two distinct elements. One
referring to bunching of workers in jobs and the other to the social and occupational
hierarchy that permeates it.
Women’s economic tasks in India can be divided in to three categories – as an
entrepreneur, as a participant and as a contributor to the family’s real income. There is
no uniform official policy as to whether or not all these three categories of tasks are to be
taken into account for measuring women’s employment. Nirmala Banerjee9 has made an
enquiry about women workers in the unorganized sector of Calcutta’s economy. She
found that the employment was regular for working women and their wage rate was
significantly lower as compared to those for men with equal qualifications. The working
women in the informal sector included a significant number of children and old people
and over 60 percent of them were illiterate.
Leela Gulati10 has made an attempt to study the women in the unorganized sector in
Kerala on the basis of micro- level observations. It appeared that women go to work
because of the irregular nature of employment that their men are involved in and the low
incomes they make. Regarding the kind of work opportunity open to women in the
unorganized sector, very often they choose the type of work that their parents or relatives
are involved in. Also they prefer to stick on the same kind of work they are similar with
and pick closer by locations.
Jeemol Unni and Uma Rani11 have made an attempt to study the informal sector in the
light of structural adjustment programme. With steady
decline in the growth of the formal sector in India following the introduction of the SAP,
a large section of the growing labour force is being absorbed in agriculture and the
unorganized informal structure resulting in a progressive increase in employment in the
informal sector.
However, the most important and the large sector of employed women is the unorganized
sector which includes the landless agricultural labourers, workers in traditional Crafts,
Village and Cottage industries, migrants to the cities employed as domestic workers and
vendors.
Domestic services has been, and still is, an important field of employment for many
women. Yet, the ways in which it is organized have changed considerably throughout
history and these changes have followed different trajectories. CLARA workshop on
Domestic Services and mobility involving scholars from Europe, Asia and America,
brought a ric h contribution to studies about domestic workers12 . The increased economic
and political interconnectedness of different parts of the world has enabled a rapid
increase in the number of labour migrants amongst domestic workers. The status of
domestic workers and the statistical categories under which they fall have a direct impact
on different state regulations and their status as citizens. The conditions under which
domestic workers are defined as citizen are often linked to the larger political context
such as fascism, religion and colonialism.
Bulgovind Baboo and Laxmi Panwar13 have studied the maid servants in Hariana. The
study emphasizes that they are leading a miserable life. They suffer from low wage,
long hours of work, shift in nature of job, lack of freedom and low prestige due to inferior
status of the job. Due to lack of coordination their children are neglected and familial
relations becomes tense. The fragmented nature of their job, lack of education and low
bargaining capacity refrain them from organizing collectively.
According to the Report on Working
Condition of Domestic Servants in Delhi by the Ministry of Labour, Government of
India, nearly 90 per cent of domestic workers are women14 . According to the National
Survey conducted by the School of Social Work15 , women constituted 87.09 per cent of
domestic workers in Karnataka, 82.38 per cent on Ranchi, 75 per cent in Kerala and
90.78 per cent in Andra Pradesh.
The domestic workers face various problems and one of them is deplorable wage level.
The wages of domestic workers have not kept pace with the spiraling price-rise. Every
price rise cuts their real wage and further nutritional deficiency for them. The studies16
conducted in Bombay and Pune indicate that women domestic workers are often the sole
supporters of their family.
A study of women domestics in Delhi18 indicates that women do not go to hospital due to
fear of the hospital and long delays there. Most of the women hold a number of jobs and
time is of great value to them.
Dhanalakshmi19 pointed out some general issues concerning women in labour market.
The issues include the segregation of women in to certain occupation, wage differentials
between men and women for the same job, low and falling work participation rates of
women etc. She made an attempt to study the domestic servants in Thiruvanathapuram
city. The socio economic conditions of domestic servants and the need of servants in city
have been studied.
It is very difficult to define the term “domestic” because it is very vague. The
term “domestic” denotes a class of “menials” which includes many types of workers, like
ayah, kitchen helper, cook and sweeper. So we would define the term Domestic Servants
as “those servants who do cooking, care the children, cleaning utensils, washing clothes,
cleaning and sweeping the houses in return for the payment of wages”.
There are two types of domestic servants –
Part-time servants and full-time servants. Part-time servants are, those who are employed
at one or more than one house to perform some definite duties and go away when the
assigned work is over. They are not residential helpers. Full- time servants are attached
to one house only. They are present for the whole day at employer’s house and do
whatever work is assigned to them.
The 51st round survey of NSSO reveals that the number of women regular
employees in urban area is 10 times those in Rural areas. Also the regular women work
force in urban area has been increased by 15 per cent over the period from 1977 to
199522 . So we can argue that the rapid process of urbanization led to such an increase in
the number of urban work force.
A substantial number of women in rural areas have little skills and practically no
education. One of the low-ranking occupations assigned to the poorest classes of society
is “domestic service’. Employment of servants ha s become very common in the urban
areas of any cities where a large number of house wives going out for jobs. The
employment of servants saves much of the time and energy for the working house wives
of modern cities. Domestic servants have proved to be a necessity for non-working
housewives also. In urban areas, they commonly engaged domestic servants to keep
them in carrying out their household chores, partly due to physical inability and partly
due to lack of time. Moreover, in nuclear families there is no stand-by in the family, if
the housewife falls ill. Also we can argue that the new middle classes have developed a
life style which has increased the demand for domestic servants.
Thus the maid servant employed in household labour are playing a significant role
especially in small towns of India. It is difficult to gauge the
exact number of women in the occupation, as workers in the category have not been
enumerated as such by the census. However, some studies bring about the information
regarding the domestic servants in different parts of our country.
Human Resources Development Report points out some common problems faced by the
domestic servants which are;
Deplorable wages
High level of insecurity
Illiteracy and lack of marketable skills,
Lack of confidence in securing other productive jobs,
Long and unregulated working hours.
No paid holidays
No paid sick leave
Immense work load
No maternity benefits
Health problems and
Social exploitation
Also elements of stigma of degradation is
very much there is in this occupation. This stigma is the main reason for lack of
standardization. Domestic service in our country is individualistic and unorganized to a
certain extent and gives no norms to the workers who take it up. NGOs have an
important role in creating economic organizations for them. SEWA has helped their
members to form economic organizations and find a wide variety of organizational forms
depending on the area, the activity and the capacity of the members. But, in our country
only very few domestic workers come under such organizations.
Under this situation, there arises certain questions such as what sort of people engaged in
domestic service relations? What is the background of employers and domestic servants?
And which are the socio economic factors responsible for choosing this occupation and
thus earning low wage income?
No more studies have been made to analyse the socio economic status of domestic
women servants and problems faced by them. The present study is an attempt on that
way.
To examine their working back ground and the type of contact made by the employers to
make the service of domestic servants available.
(A) Data:-
The study was based on primary data collected from the domestic servants by
direct interview. A schedule had been prepared by including the questions regarding
their socio-economic factors. Fifty women servants were selected from Corporation area
by purposive sampling method. Since the secondary informatio n regarding the servants
was not available and this was a pilot study, we depended on purposive sampling method.
(B) Methodology:
Simple arithmetic tools like percentage, average etc. have been used throughout
the study. Chi-square test has been executed for examining the association between wage
rate and education, wage rate and age, wage rate and experience etc.
To analyse the significant of
variables like age, education, marital status, experience in domestic service and health
status on monthly income of servants, regression model has been fitted. The
specification of the model is:
Since it was a pilot study, an efficient sampling method had not been adopted.
By purposive sampling, it was difficult to get a true representative sample. We could
trace only 12 full-time servants out of 50 and migrant servants could not be found out.
Also it suffers from the usual drawbacks of primary data.
16. ibid
-15-
CHAPTER 2
Total 12 38 50
(24) (76) (100)
No. of Servants
Marital Status
Full -time Part -time Total
Married 5 24 29
(41.67) (63.16) (58)
Unmarried 3 6 9
(25.0) (15.79) (18)
Widow 3 5 8
(25.0) (13.16) (16)
Divorcee 1 3 4
(8.33) (7.89) (8)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
Wife 5 24 29
(41.67) (63.16) (58)
Sister _ 2 2
(5.26) (4)
Daughter 4 5 9
(33.33) (13.16) (18)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
part-time servants belonged to the old age group of above 60. However,
majority of the sample servants were constituted by young or middle aged
persons
Table 2.4 : Age Composition of Domestic Servants
21-30 1 5 6
(8.33) (13.16) (12.0)
31-40 4 21 25
(33.33) (55.26) (50.0)
41-50 4 8 12
(33.33) (21.05) (24.0)
51-60 2 2 2
(16.67) (5.26) ( 18.0)
Above 60 0 2 2
(5.26) (4.0)
In table 2.5, servants are classified according to their age and marital
status.
Table 2.5 :Agewise Distribution of Domestic Servants according to their
Marital Status
Marital Status
Age Married Unmarried Widow Divorces Total
group
FT PT Total FT PT Total FT PT Total FT PT Total FT PT Total
Below - - - 1 - 1 - - - - - - 1 - 1
21
21- 30 - 4 4 - 1 1 - - - 1 - 1 1 5 6
31 –40 2 15 17 2 3 5 - 2 2 - 1 1 4 21 25
41 –50 3 3 6 - 2 2 1 2 3 - 1 1 4 8 12
51 –60 - 1 1 - - - 2 - 2 - 1 1 2 2 4
Above - 1 1 - - - - 1 1 - - - - 2 2
60
Total 5 24 29 3 6 9 3 5 8 1 3 4 12 38 50
In the age group 21-30, there was one divorcee, working as full-time
servant. Also in the age group of 41-60, 43.75 per cent were married
whereas the remaining 56.25 per cent were unmarried or widowed or
divorced.
31 –40 - 4 4 2 13 15 - - - 2 4 6 4 21 25
41 –50 1 3 4 3 3 6 - 2 2 - - - 4 8 12
51 –60 2 1 3 - 1 1 - - - - - - 2 2 4
Above 60
- 1 1 - 1 1 - - - - - - - 2 2
Total 3 9 12 5 22 27 4 5 9 12 38 50
24 per cent of them were “Head” of their families in which 66.67 per cent
came under the age group of 31-50. These servants were either unmarried or
widowed or divorced ladies. However, they were trying hard for looking
after their home mates.
From table 2.7, it is clear that 62 per cent of the servants belonged to
small sized families consisting of two to four members. Two part-time
servants belonged to large families consisting of eight to twelve members.
The remaining 34 per cent belonged to the families having five to seven
members. When we make a cross s
ectional analysis, it can be realized that 6 houses were constituted by only
female members and 12 houses were headed by the females. Also females
were outnumbered in 18 houses and equal to the number of male members in
16 houses.
2.8 Education:
Only three out of 50 servants, had training in craft work. But they
did not want to accept that as a job because of meagre income they earned
from that. However, most of them have realized the importance of getting
well educated. They responded that if they had a good education, they
could get a better job. About 80 per cent of them were interested for further
education, but they had no time to spent on that because of their work load.
Table 2.8 : Distribution of Domestic Servants according to
their Education
(v) SSLC _ 2 2
passed (5.26) (4.0)
(vi) Pre- 1 1 2
degree (8.33) (2.63) (4.0)
level education
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
Most of the part-time servants (84.21 per cent) had served in more
than one house in a day. About 63 per cent of them had worked in two or
three homes daily. There were 21 per cent of the servants who had worked
in 4 or 5 houses daily. This is clear from table 2.9.
Total 38
Source: Sample Survey Data.
2–4 -- 7 7
(18.42) (14.0)
4 –6 -- 16 16
(42.11) (32.0)
6–8 7 12 19
(58.33) (31.58) (38.0)
8 –10 5 3 8
(41.67) (7.89) (16.0)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
Regarding the part time servant they secured a monthly wage in the
range of Rs.400 to Rs.2500.
4 –6 5 8 13
(41.67) (21.05) (26.0)
6–8 6 13 19
(50.0) (34.21) (48.0)
8 –10 1 11 12
(8.33) (28.95) (24.0)
10 –12 _ 4 4
(10.53) (8.0)
12 –14 _ 2 2
(5.26) (4.0)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
Now we can compare the labour hours and wage rate of domestic
servants with that of the other female labourers engaged in agricultural and
non-agricultural activities . In Corporation area, they have received a wage
rate of about Rs.17 per hour and they worked for 7 hours in a day. So we
could conclude that on an average, the work load of domestic servants was
higher or equal to that of the other female labourers. But the wage rate was
much less in the case of domestic servants.
2.9.2.2. Experience in domestic service and wage rate.
Total 12 38 50
experience had been receiving lower wage rate of 4 to 6 rupees per hour.
And about 67 per cent of full time servants with two to five years experience
had been receiving a wage rate of 6 to 8 rupees per hour. But one servant
receiving the same wage rate of 6 to 8 rupees per hour had an experience of
5 to 8 years.
Table 2.13 : Distribution of Domestic Servants accordingto their
wage rate and experience
Experience FT PT FT PT FT PT FT PT FT PT FT PT
in years
Less than 5 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- -- 5 --
2 years
2–5 1 4 4 6 1 6 -- 2 -- -- 6 18
5–8 -- 2 1 4 -- 1 -- 2 -- -- 1 9
8 – 11 -- -- -- 2 -- 2 -- -- -- 1 -- 5
11& More
than11years -- 1 -- 1 -- 2 -- 1 -- 1 -- 6
Total 6 7 5 13 1 11 -- 5 -- 2 12 38
In the case of part time servants, persons having the same experience
had been receiving different wage rates. A part time servant with lower
wage rate of 4 to 5 rupees per hour was a person with 12 years experience.
However, to examine whether
here existed any association between these attributes wage rate and
experience chi-square test has been executed. The test was done by taking
the hypothesis that there is no association between experience and wage rate.
The value of chi-square statistic was 0.269, which is less than the table value
of chi-square at 5 percent level of significance and the hypothesis was
accepted . Hence it was found that there was no association between
experience and wage rate .
Below LP or 1 3 3 3 -- 5 -- 3 -- 1 4 15
with LP
Below UP or 2 1 2 3 -- 4 -- 1 -- -- 4 9
with UP
HS 1 2 1 1 1 2 -- -- -- -- 3 5
S.S.L.C. -- -- -- 1 -- -- -- -- -- 1 -- 2
P.D.C 1 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1 1
Total 5 8 6 13 1 11 -- 4 -- 2 12 38
Source: Sample Survey Data
Of the 12 servants having
above high school level education, only 33.33 per cent of servants were
getting more than 8 rupees as their wage rate. At the same time, 43.75 per
cent of servants with primary education had got a wage rate of more than 8
rupees. The wage rate of illiterate servants was below 8 rupees per hour.
When we consider the full time servants, most of them (91.7 per cent)
came under the category of low wage rate (below rupees 8) irrespective of
their education level. Regarding the part-time servants, about 47 per cent of
them having primary education and 38 per cent with above high school
education had received higher wage rate.
The association between wage rate and education was tested using
chi-square statistic based on the hypothesis that there is no association
between these variables . The calculated value of chi-square was 0.99, which
was less than the table value of chi-square at 5 percent level of significance.
Hence the hypothesis was accepted.
21- 30 1 -- -- 2 -- 3 -- -- -- -- 1 5
31 - 40 1 6 2 7 1 5 -- 2 -- 1 4 21
41 - 50 2 2 2 2 -- 2 -- 1 -- 1 4 8
51 - 60 1 -- 1 1 -- -- -- 1 -- -- 2 2
Above 60 -- -- -- 1 -- 1 -- -- -- -- -- 2
Total 5 8 6 13 1 11 -- 4 -- 2 12 38
Source: Sample Survey Data
Some part-time servants (about 35 per cent) who had served their
matrons for 8 to 20 years reported that though their wage was not increased
much during their working period, their matrons were their soul supporters
in all respects. But 50 per cent of the part-time servants were not satisfied
with the approach of their house matrons to them. They hardly got help or
gifts from their masters. About 15 per cent of them complained that their
masters were not regular in paying wages to them.
2.9.5 Experience in other jobs:
Out of 50, twenty servants had engaged in some other jobs before entering
into their field. Their previous jobs included agricultural labour,
construction work, sales girl, beedi making etc. (Table 2.16).
Table 2.16 Distribution of Domestic Servants according to the types of
job they engaged before entering the domestic service.
Agricultural Labour 2 7 9
(33.33) (50.0) (45.0)
Construction work 3 6 9
(50.0) 42.86) 45.0)
Others 1 1 2
(16.67) (7.14) (10.0)
Total 6 14 20
(100) (100) (100)
However, there were some factors responsible for their job shifting 20
per cent of them responded that the other jobs were tiresome and 40 per cent
responded that thee was instability for other jobs. Some others (30 per cent)
had health problems which hindered them to continue in other jobs.
2.9.6. Leave and Holidays:
reasons were genuine, such as sickness, function in the house etc. In a few
cases, the servant-maids had sent substitutes whenever they fell to turn up.
Some times, continuous leave for one or two weeks led to the loss their job.
2.9.7.Working Environment:
It was clear that 60 per cent of the servants were working in nuclear
families. But the accommodation or visiting of employer’s relatives or
cousin or visitors had not increased servants’ wage though their work load
was high.
Though the employers owned enough
equipments that facilitate the domestic work, all of these were not available
to the servants. For instance, though there were mixie, washing machine etc.
in the employer’s house, these were not being worked in the presence of
servants. However, it was clear that the electric charge and other cost of
working these equipments were very large when compared to the servants’
wage level.
2.9.8. Unionisation:
2.10.1 Income
400 – 800 3 13 16
(25.0) (34.21) (32.0)
800 – 1200 3 10 13
(25.0) (26.32) (26.0)
1200 – 1600 5 10 15
(41.67) (26.32) (30.0)
1600 – 2000 _ 3 3
(7.89) (6.0)
2000 – 2400 1 1 2
(8.33) (2.63) (4.0)
2400 – 2800 _ 1 1
(2.63) (2.0)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
Table 2.18 shows the share of servants’ own income to their family
income. 44 per cent of them earn 21 to 40 per cent of their total family
income. 10 per cent of them earn 81 to 100 per cent of family income. It
was found that three part-time servants were the only earning persons of
their families.
In order to find out whether the socio-economic variables like age
(x1i), education (X2i), marital status (X3i), experience in domestic service
(X4i), health (X5i) etc. had any role in determining the monthly income (Yi)
or servants, multiple regression model has been fitted.
For the whole sample, the
model (I) is
Yi = 993.25 + 2.25 X1 i + 6.94 X2i – 105.39 X3i + 0.77 X4i + 254.51 X5i
SE (423.92) (0.637) (73.05) (78.70) (15.52) (198.82)
R2 = 0.069
and for the full-time servants, the model (III) is
Yi = 504.30 + 6.49 X1i + 20.58 X2i – 3.66 X3i + 243.06 X4 I – 144.45 X5i
SE (1883.83) (28.84) (218.94) (180.30) (214.82) (372.29)
R2 = 0.4465
15-20 -- 6 6
(15.79) (12.0)
21-40 8 14 22
(66.67) (36.84) (44.0)
41-60 2 12 14
(16.67) (31.58) (28.0)
61-80 1 2 3
(8.33) (5.26) ( 6.0)
81-100 1 4 5
(8.33) (10.53) (10.0)
Total 12 38 50
(100) (100) (100)
P.O.Savings -- 13 13
LIC Policy -- 1 1
Others 4 9 13
Total 4 23 27
Total 4 23 27
(100) (100) (100)
It was found that 27 servants out of 50 had credit under their own risk
or the risk of whole members of the family. Most of them (81.5 per cent)
took loan for construction purpose while others for marriage purposes. Of
27, seven servants had the sole risk of credit since they were the head of
their families. Five of the families of servants were in the thread of recovery
of their assets because of the non-repayment of loan.
Back pain 2 5 7
Leg pain 1 4 5
Headache -- 2 2
Goiter -- 1 1
Old age disease -- 1 1
Diabatis & B.P. -- 1 1
Total 3 14 17
Very few of them (10 per cent) had reading habit. They seldom read
newspapers or magazines. About 20 per cent of them had enjoyed watching
T.V. but was not regular.
Total 41
(100)
Their housing conditions are given in table 2.23. While 78% of the houses
had tiles or concrete roof, 80 per cent had brick wall and 42 per cent had
dung plastered floor. Regarding the drinking water source, it was found
that 62 per cent of the houses depended on public well or public tap. Also
70 per cent of the houses were not electrified.
VI. Electrified 15
Regarding the home appliances, 54 per cent of the households had not
any devices even radio.
In case of four divorced servants, one having children didn’t get any
support from her family members. Other three divorcees were living with
their parents or brothers. The young widow servants were trying hard to
make both ends meet.
Though the parents of some of the servants were living with them,
they were not healthy. So the servants had to look after them also.
The servants were very pessimistic about their future. They felt that their
work was demeaning - washing others’ dirt. They responded that they were
tied to this job because of certain circumstances like low level education,
poor family background etc. Being stuck in the working place for a long
time, they had adverse effects on their feeling of well-being.
===========
CHAPTER-3
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
3.2 Conclusion
=========
APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Ward No. :
Name :
Address :
Age :
Religion :
Caste :
If not, why?
If yes, why?
Food items
(ii) Purpose :
(iii) Source :
(v) Duration :
Give details
Give details
(xvii) Are you suffering from any type of attack of
anti-social elements? Yes/No
Give details
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
REPORTS/WORKING PAPERS/THESES