A less obvious form of slavery in India is that of abusive domestic service. As this occurs in the privacy of the home, it is often hidden from view. As a result, the scale of the problem is difficult if not impossible to assess with any degree of accuracy. Indications are that the problem is increasing as the middle classes continue to flourish and grow.

About three quarters of domestic workers in India are believed to be between the ages of 12 and 16, and 90% of these are girls. The 2001 census indicated there were 185,000 children in domestic service, but this is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Combining figures for children in domestic service and the hospitality sectors, officials estimate 2.5 million, but NGOs believe the figure could be as high as 20 million. In 2006, the employment of children under 14 in domestic labour was outlawed. Within the first year of the ban, more than 2000 violations were reported. Of course, these figures do not reflect the abuse that is often present in domestic service, nor the numbers of those trafficked into service.

[open to abuse]

In general, there are two broad patterns of domestic work. In one, the worker serves one household day and night, and lives in the home. In the other, the worker serves in a number of households over a week, or even over a day.

Although many households employing domestic servants believe they are benevolent in providing shelter, food and clothing for the children they employ, the scope for abuse in domestic service is broad. This can take the form of excessively long hours without any breaks or days off, degrading tasks as part of the work, withholding food and pay, physical, as well as emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of employers or family members.

[placement agencies]

Often placement agencies will find workers for households. Some are legitimate enterprises, but others can be involved in abusive practices.Over a two month period non-governmental organisations in Delhi reported over a hundred cases of children being abused by placement agencies [North India Times 3-7-2011]. Although authorities say there are 119 agencies registered, NGOs claim there are 6,000 illegal operations in existence.

Households may pay the agent for the services of the worker, and that payment is withheld from the worker, and, in the case of child labourers, from their family. Agents may entice workers to move long distances from their home for work, often making promises of jobs and good pay that fail to materialise. Agents will look for the workers who are most vulnerable – those in extreme poverty, the marginalised, the displaced. The most disreputable agents may well be involved in physically and sexually abusing workers too. Agents may also offer advances to the worker or their family. In effect this becomes a loan, and the worker is now indebted and hence trapped in a bonded labour arrangement.

[trafficked]

Children will often be taken or trafficked into domestic service. Besides being deprived of a childhood and subjected to abuse, they are also prevented from having an education and the opportunity to learn skills that would give them better employment opportunities.

Like most forms of trafficking and slavery in India, it is those who fall below the rigid caste system – Dalits and Tribals – who are most at risk.

DFN UK wants to see an end to the trafficking of domestic workers in India. End Dalit Trafficking. [Read more...]