All India Survey on Domestic Workers

All India Survey on Domestic Workers

News: Recently, the Union Minister for Labour and Employment flagged off the first ever All India Survey on Domestic Workers (DW).This was a first-ever such survey in independent India and will be completed in a year.

Details:
• The main objectives of the survey are:
o Estimate the number/proportion of DWs at National and State level.
o Household Estimates of Live-in/Live-out DWs.
o Average number of DWs engaged by different types of households.
• Parameters the survey aims to capture the number and proportion of household workers by major states, with separate rural and urban break-ups, their percentage distribution, households that employ them and socio-demographic characteristics.
• The survey would cover 37 States and Union Territories, covering 1.5 lakh households in 742 districts.
• The survey for domestic workers is among five national jobs surveys that will be conducted periodically and provide crucial data for an upcoming national employment policy.
• The other four surveys are the All-India Survey of Migrant Workers, All-India Survey of Employment Generated by Professionals and All-India Survey of Employment Generated in the Transport Sector, AllIndia Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES).
• Domestic workers (DWs) constitute a significant portion of total employment in the informal sector. However, there is a dearth of data on the magnitude and prevailing employment conditions of DW.
• The Survey is intended to have time series data on domestic workers.The survey will help the government understand significant issues on certain special and vulnerable segments of labour and will guide effective policymaking.

Domestic Worker:
• Any person engaged by a household shall be classified as a domestic worker if the frequency of visits by the worker to the household is at least four days during the last 30 days and the goods and/or services produced by the worker are consumed by the members of the household against payment either through cash or kind.
• According to the latest data on the e-Shram portal, around 8.8% of the registered 8.56 crore informal sector workers fall in the category of domestic workers.
• India has around 38 crore workers in the informal sector.At the current rate of registration in the e-shram portal, there would be 3-3.5 crore domestic workers in the country.
• Domestic workers are the third-largest category of workers after agriculture and construction.India is a signatory of the International Labour Organisation Convention C-189 (Domestic Workers Convention, 2011).