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Domestic helps earn less than Rs 3‚500

According to the study‚ workers who live in the same house where they work earn less than those who live outside

Domestic helps in Kathmandu earn less than Rs 3,500, which is significantly lower than the minimum wage of the country.

The government had set Rs 6,200 as minimum wage in March 2011.

The average earning of domestic workers is just Rs 3,400, a study commissioned by the Centre for Labour and Social Studies said. According to the study, domestic workers who live in the same house where they work earn less than those who live outside.

The average salary of domestic workers who stay in the house where they work is Rs 1,700, said team leader of the study Bishal Bhardwaj.

The study has also revealed the pathetic conditions in which domestic workers live. Live-in domestic workers usually get stale food and old clothes. They have been exploited at all fronts. All family members tend to misbehave with domestic workers and exploit them, he said, explaining the situation.

According to the study, the average working period of domestic workers who live with the family and who live outside is 48 months and 14 months, respectively. Some major work that they do are wash clothes, clean the house and cook, which covers around 50 per cent of their time.

There is no record of domestic workers in the country. However, labour authorities believe that there are around 60,000 domestic helps in the country.

The absence of a law that includes domestic helps and lack of ratification of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 189 have weakened the rights of domestic workers. Therefore, we are lobbying for the rights of domestic workers, said general secretary of the organisation Tilak Jung Khadka.

Protecting domestic workers at home and abroad should be a key issue for the country because around 200,000 Nepalis are working as domestic helps in Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Their condition is also miserable because of abuse and exploitation by employers.

The job destinations do not have labour laws that ensure labour rights for domestic workers. Human Rights Watch has termed the Kafala system — known as sponsorship system — as modern day slavery in a 2011 report. The rights-based organisation and International Trade Union Confederation have been urging Gulf countries to ratify ILO Convention 189.