Most Needed and Most Neglected

ONE of the most cherished privileges many expat Bangladeshis miss about their motherland is the comfort of having others do all their household chores – someone to cook for you, clean your home, look after your children, especially when they get all bratty and uncontrollable, do the laundry, iron your clothes, oil your hair… the list is endless. But we don't need to be three thousand miles away to realise just how indulged we, who are lucky enough to afford such help, are. A few days without the chuta bua and all hell breaks loose in most homes. Those people whom we call bua, pichhi, darwan or someone's ma – these are the individuals who make our lives so convenient, comfortable and efficient. Without them our lives would be an endless cycle of chores, leaving us exhausted, agitated and unmotivated. These are the remarkable people who spare us the daily drudgery that makes many an expat Bangladeshi long for home. 

Yet how do we express our gratitude for their invaluable services? By paying them whatever we want, making them work however long we want and behaving with them however we want. How a domestic worker is treated is entirely dependent on what kind of a person her/his employer is.

And the overwhelming evidence is far from pleasant. According to Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), 797 incidents of inhuman torture on domestic workers took place in the last 10 years. Of them, 398 died of torture, 299 were wounded and 100 others faced other forms of torture. This is from a 2013 report and based on newspaper reports; this means the numbers are much higher since most incidents of torture do not get reported.

Stories of torture and death of domestic workers, many of them children, may bring forth the temporary wave of horror and disgust among the 'educated and elite' but they are soon forgotten because of the delusion that 'Oh we are not like that'. But the truth is while most employers may not take a burning spatula to scald their thirteen-year-old maid for breaking a tea cup, many of them do not honour even the most basic rights of a domestic worker.

While there are households where the employers try to provide a good working and living environment for domestic workers, the numbers of such benevolent employers are very few. Our society in general propagates the idea that domestic workers are at the lowest rung in the social ladder. This is why we often do not even know the real names of our home workers, even those who have lived with us for decades. It explains why we do not reprimand our children when they behave badly with the domestic help, when they are disrespectful to those who are older than them. It shows why we make the maids sleep on the kitchen floor, stay behind in a corner when we take them to restaurants to look after the children and refuse to even acknowledge their presence when we are with friends or relatives. It is the reason why we use terms like 'servant', 'chakor' and 'menials'.

According to the ILO, UNICEF, Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), there are more than 4 million young and adult domestic workers. Among them 83 percent are female, who are mostly children. These workers make a significant contribution to the economy, by taking on the huge burden of household work of others, enhancing the wellbeing and productivity of their employers and their families. Yet under the Labour Law they are not part of the formal sector and so basically 'invisible' under law. The Labour Act 2013 (amended) has fixed the minimum age for admission to work at 14 years and for hazardous work it has been fixed at 18. But this does not apply to domestic workers as they are considered part of the informal sector. Activists and various organisations like BLAST have been advocating for the Domestic Worker Protection and Welfare Policy 2010 (draft) but it is yet to be adopted.

The reason is quite simple. There is an implicit complicity in our feudal society that allows the privileged to exploit the underprivileged and nothing manifests this reality more than the relationship of the Shaheb or Begum Shaheb and their home worker. In most households 'live-in' home workers are supposed to be available 24 x 7 – they may be called upon even in the middle of the night if necessary. There is no such thing as overtime for a home worker. Neither is there the concept of a weekly holiday. "Why would they need a few hours off or a day off when they are given fifteen days leave every year to go to their village home?" asks the indignant Begum Shaheb. Oh well, it's simple – THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS! State indifference is a reflection of this general classist attitude.

It goes without saying that a separate law is needed to clearly state the rights of the domestic worker – minimum wage, minimum age, the maximum number of hours they will work, the hours of mandatory leisure, off days, holidays etc. All domestic workers must be registered and have ID cards. Domestic workers must also be allowed to have a network so that they can fight for these rights together and take the help of the law when these rights are violated. Until we can completely phase out child labour, child domestic workers have to be given extra protection through enforced laws: they cannot be made to do tasks that would be considered hazardous work, they cannot be made to work adult hours, they must be given opportunities to go to school and be given adequate, nutritious food. 

Unfortunately, though we may have become apparently civilised and modern, our mentality, when it comes to the rights of people from less privileged backgrounds, remains in a medieval state. As a society we have not evolved enough to realise just how exploitative we are in our treatment of domestic workers. 

If any of you believe that this is an unfair statement just think about this: how many of you will allow all your domestic workers to take today off? And not because it's a Friday.

The writer is Deputy Editor, Op-Ed and Editorial, The Daily Star.