The everyday plight of domestic workers

According to the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) around 20 lakh workers are engaged in domestic work. Despite their honest work and contribution, they are one of the most vulnerable and victimised groups in Bangladesh. Moreover, they get little attention in our policy-legal talks too. Indeed, with the tragic death of Preeti Urang at the house of Syed Ashraful Haque, the now-terminated executive editor of The Daily Star brought the issue to the forefront.

The domestic workers suffer from an array of issues in Bangladesh, including but not limited to rape, sexual harassment, physical and emotional torture, lack of job security, low or no wages, deprivation of basic necessities, etc. In fact, according to a study by the BILS published in May 2021, more than half of the live-in domestic workers have encountered some form of harassment at their workplace.

Some would argue that the main reason behind this grim reality is the classist mindset that was instilled in us by the British during the 200 years of colonial rule. Others would blame the very nature of such work and the power imbalance between the employer and the domestic worker. While both of these may be contributing factors, the author believes that a primary reason behind the problem is the lack of sufficient political will to solve the problem and the lack of an effective legal framework relating to the rights of domestic workers.

The first point to clarify on this matter is that even though we have a labour law to protect the workers, namely, the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (BLA), it does not encompass domestic workers. Section 1(4)(Na) of the Act excludes house-helps from the ambit of the law. As such, they are by default deprived of a wide range of labour rights such as a fixed working hours or minimum wage like other workers. In the case of BNWLA v The Cabinet Division (2011), the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh gave directions to the government to include 'domestic workers' within the definition of worker in the BLA.

The court gave multiple directions to the Government, in addition to the abovementioned one, including, prohibiting the employment of children below the age of 12 in any type of work, ensuring the monitoring and prosecution of the perpetrators in cases of violence against domestic workers, ensuring mandatory registration of domestic workers, promulgating law making it mandatory for employers to ensure health checkups of the domestic workers at least once in every two months, etc. Needless to say, any steps taken by the government fell short of what was required in this regard.

Firstly, domestic workers have not been included in the definition of workers in the BLA as of yet. A policy named Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2015 has been adopted but since it is not a law but merely a Policy, legal actions cannot be brought against employers for its violations. Moreover, the Policy, too, compromises the welfare of the domestic workers in multiple places. For instance, paragraph 7.1 does not specify any minimum wage for domestic workers enabling exploitive employers to take advantage of the same. Paragraph 7.4 does not specify the maximum work hours for domestic workers. Rather it keeps it vague which does little to nothing to address the problem of overwork that the domestic workers usually face. Adding to it, according to the study done by BILS, only 14% of the domestic workers even heard about the Policy and almost no employer knew about it. This suggests that the government did not do the needful to raise awareness on the Policy.

However, the Policy has a few commendable aspects as well. For instance, paragraph 7.10 gives the responsibility to the government to ensure fair justice under the existing laws in case of any harassment or torture of the domestic worker. In addition, the minimum age for employment has been made at par with the BLA under paragraph 7.2.

Now, it may be important to mention here that even though there is no special law protecting the rights of domestic workers specifically, some extreme instances of violations of rights that we see around us can be remedied by the existing laws of the country. Acts of rape or sexual harassment against women and children have been sanctioned under sections 9, 10 of the Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000, sections 354, 375 of the Penal Code 1860. Acts amounting to hurt or grievous hurt have been penalised in the Code under sections 319-338A. However, a lot of other acts like compelling to work for long hours or not having any fixed minimum wage have no remedies or safeguards.

Bangladesh has not yet ratified the Domestic Workers Convention 2011. Despite that, its constitutional obligations alone are sufficient to argue that the government needs to take measures to protect the rights of domestic workers as soon as possible. Conversations surrounding rights of the domestic workers should not surface only when something sensational takes place.

The writer is Law Desk Assistant, The Daily Star.