ABOUT DOMESTIC WORKERS  >  Child Domestic Workers

Child Domestic Workers are children below the age of 18 years who are employed within households to perform chores. Most child domestic workers are girls because domestic work is considered to be the responsibility of girls and women. They can be as young as four or five years old. They generally belong to backward and scheduled castes or tribes. The vast majority of them are illiterate or barely literate.

They are employed to perform household tasks such as cooking, cleaning (dusting, sweeping, and mopping the house), washing clothes and/or utensils, ironing, marketing, running errands, child care, care of the elderly and the disabled. They may be paid or unpaid.

Many child domestic workers are brought from villages to work in large cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Chennai, and Hyderabad. Children from impoverished rural families are sent to live in the houses, with the hope that they will be looked after as their ‘own’ children. Some begin their working lives in debt to the employer who had paid an advance to the family member or to the recruiter. Middlemen seek out and recruit village girls to work in city houses. Families in the slums of cities send their children to work as domestics. Some part-time domestic workers sometimes bring their children to their jobs so they can help them complete tasks more efficiently.

There is, generally, no contract at the time of employment. An advance maybe taken before placing the child, without any pay for the sake of food and lodging. Often, the parents are promised that in lieu of paying a salary, the employer will educate or meet the marriage expenses of the girl.
 

  Conditions of Child Domestic Workers

• Live-in child domestic workers are on call 24 hours a day. They typically work between 8 and 18 hours a day and are unable to refuse work.

• They can be hired or fired at any time.

• These children have no or very little opportunity for recreation and social interaction.

• They are deprived of any kind of education—formal and non-formal.

• Child domestic workers are dependent on their employers for all their needs.

• Live-in child domestic workers grow up in an environment without parental affection. Many of whom suffer from development and psychological disorders

• Child domestic workers are worse off and girls are most vulnerable to psychological, physical and sexual abuse. Many are beaten sometimes to the point of death.

• Child domestic workers are hidden behind the closed doors of the houses, in which they work, remaining unseen and unheard.

• Uprooted from their familiar environment and planted in a totally alien surrounding, Child Domestic Workers have no one with whom they can share their feelings, talk to and socialize. Verbal abuse demeans them and greatly lowers their sense of self-worth.

  Why are Child Domestic Workers Employed?

Child Domestic Workers are popular with employers because they are docile, they can be manipulated according to the needs of employers, they can be paid less, and they are less troublesome because of being unaware of and unable to demand their rights.

Child domestic work is justified because of the following societal myths:

• "Domestic Work is a solution to poverty. The children are better off because they get food, shelter and clothing. The parents have one less mouth to feed."

• "Domestic Work is non-hazardous"

• "The children are 'adopted' and find a home."

But these myths are far from reality. There are hazards associated with cooking, boiling water, chopping vegetables, using chemical cleaning fluids and carrying heavy items. Burns are relatively common among child domestic workers. In case of breakage or poor performance, the child worker may be punished severely. Accusations of laziness or bad work are often behind violent incidents against domestic workers. Injury or sickness suffered by the domestic worker may not be treated with the same urgency or medical attention as with the family members. In their isolation, child domestic workers are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and the possibility of early pregnancy.
 

  The Reality

The employers' house can never become a true home. The children are treated neither as members of the family, nor as workers. Though the children are promised food, shelter and clothing and being looked after as their own child, they are treated as second class citizens. Child domestic workers are treated as the property of the employer and they are used according the employers' wishes and want.
 

Child Domestic Workers with the National Domestic Workers’ Movement (NDWM)

• NDWM organizes, educates and empowers children in domestic work.

• Child Domestic workers are hidden within the portals of the employers’ homes, thereby limiting our access to help them. Thus, the Movement works with school children to establish child to child networks, encouraging them to speak to their elders about the issue of child domestic workers. This increases our access to the victimised children, through the fact that school children would be aware if other children are employed in domestic work.

• The Movement actively involves in the lobbying and campaigning for their rights and justice as workers.

• Victimised and abused children in domestic work are rehabilitated and reintegrated while providing assistance.

• Networks with organizations like UNICEF, ILO, YUVA, CCVC, AMC, MFA, GAATW, Anti-Slavery International, Human Rights - Asia, Community Centers and Welfare Agencies at both national and international levels are established towards the implementation of the Child Labour Ban and the rights of children.