Should the bill be passed by Parliament, for India’s 4 million women domestic workers, considered to be most vulnerable to sexual harassment, this would a major victory in their struggle for legal recognition as ‘employees’.
Underlining the importance of including domestic workers in the bill, Christy Mary, the national executive coordinator for the National Domestic Workers Movement, told Firstpost: “Firstly, there is no law in India to protect domestic workers. Very few states have included domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act. And the central government is not a position to pass legislation exclusively for them. Domestic workers are extremely vulnerable to all kinds of abuses. And because of absence of a law, the police also don’t take them seriously. The inclusion of domestic workers will be a boost for them and it will encourage them to report cases. It is a surety for them to protect them from abuse.”
