Ensuring rights of domestic workers

Md. Sazedul Islam :
Human Rights Day is observed around the world, including in Bangladesh, on December 10 every year with a call for protecting the human rights of all. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423(V), inviting all states and interested organizations to observe December 10 of each year as Human Rights Day.
In a message on the occasion, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “amid large scale atrocities and widespread abuses across the world, Human Rights Day should rally more concerted global action to promote the timeless principles that we have collectively pledged to uphold”.
The UDHR is a milestone document in the history of human rights. According to Article 1 of UDHR, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity in rights. Bur what we see regarding the condition of our domestic workers, it is frustrating. Bangladesh is one of the signatory countries to UDHR, but a huge number of its domestic workers are still facing human rights violation.
It is unknown when the domestic works first started in our society. But it is a matter of regret that this profession has been neglected. The domestic workers have not yet been recognized as workers. Till now, no effective step has been taken to fix their wages and protect their rights.
Their contribution has not evaluated in our national income. There is no standard relating to their wages, fixed working hours and leave. The helpless and poor workers cannot place allegations against offenders and file cases if they are victim of any injustice.
There is Labour Act-2006 which provides legal protection to our workers, but the domestic works and domestic workers have been excluded in the Act. Hence, they are deprived of enjoying different rights and faced various tortures.
The High Court on February 9 and 15, 2011 gave a 10-point directive to the government to ensure their rights, but the directive was not complied.
In recent years, harassment and torture on child domestic workers increased alarmingly. Most of victims don’t get their justice in the court. The accused in the cases forced the victims’ guardians to withdraw the cases.
News reports of such incident perpetrated on helpless rural adolescent girls do not come out of wall of those houses as the incidents remained suppressed due to lack of registration and inspection.
According to a joint survey of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) and Social Welfare Institute of Dhaka University (2005), the domestic workers faced various tortures and deprivation such as lack of scope of education and recreation, abusive language, physical torture, threat to terminate their job, excess works beyond capacity, sexual harassment, sense of insecurity and mental frustration.
Quoting published newspaper reports, Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) said 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 form of torture. This year, 15 domestic workers were killed and 14 others injured by their employers across the country, it said.
Nazma Yeasmin, member secretary of Domestic Workers’ Rights Network (DWRN), said in most of the torture incidents, cases were not filed and, if filed, a verdict was not available because of lack of witnesses and compromise of victims with the oppressors. The poor victims have no capacity to carry on their cases, because they are poor. They were forced to withdraw cases in exchange of less amount of money due to pressure by influential quarters. Tortures on the domestic workers could be stopped if the government had taken timely steps by giving exemplary punishment to the oppressors and then publicized it to the public, she said.
According to DWRN, a combined platform of human rights and trade union organizations, there are over 20 lakh domestic workers across the country and most of them are adolescent girls and women. Being poor, the helpless families do not have courage and ability and do not get state assistance in running cases against the influential oppressors. Hence, the cases are being lost.
The number of the workers is rising day by day in our country, but no effective steps are being taken for protecting their rights. Being poor, illiterate and helpless, the domestic workers failed to organize themselves to realize their rights.
The issue of the domestic workers also did not get the attention of our national organizations. Many organizations failed to play their role in highlighting the problems of the poor workers. Now, time has come to stand beside them to uphold their nights.
According to DWRN, it is not possible to change the situation without the strong supervision of the state. The rights body called upon the government to ratify the ILO Convention No. 189. The Convention on ‘decent work for domestic workers’ clearly articulates the terms of reference for promoting and protecting rights of domestic workers.
A total of 17 countries have ratified the ILO Convention so far, but Bangladesh is yet to ratify it.
Through the Convention No. 189, ILO’s member countries formally gave status of labour to domestic labour and recognized the domestic workers as worker. The Convection asked the member countries to take necessary steps for giving appointment letter to the domestic workers, arrange inspection system, ensuring placing allegation and recourse to labour court and ensuring fixing standard for wages, working hour, rest and leave and right to organizing themselves and bargaining and other facilities through enacting law.
In its 100th conference held at Geneva on June 1-17, 2011, International Labour Organization (ILO) recommended for ensuring decent work for the domestic workers.
Our Constitution asked the State to ensure the fundamental rights of all the citizens. The rights of ensuring works in exchange of decent wage, rest, recreation and social safety have been enshrined in our constitution. All the citizens are equal in the eyes of law and also entitled to recourse to shelter of law in the Constitution. So, violation of the rights of a large number of people cannot be accepted.  
If we want to ensure the rights of the workers, the government should take steps such as bringing the domestic workers under Labour Law, registration, introducing inspection system, launching impartial investigation into killings and torture and giving exemplary punishment, conducting cases of workers at the expense of the government, not to settle cases by flouting criminal law, monitoring progress of the cases with administrative initiative, quick implementation of ‘Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2010’, and ratification of ILO Convention (No. 189) titled ‘decent works for domestic workers’.
There is no doubt that the country’s gross domestic product and income would be increased if the domestic labour is brought under legal structure. There is no alternative to their legal protection to ensure the life and livelihood and human rights of the domestic workers, who form the country’s large part of population.
We should develop Bangladesh to be a prosperous country, which will be free from discrimination and exploitation of all kinds and where equal rights and opportunities will be ensured for all the people.
It would be possible to establish the rights of all the people with combined and sincere efforts of all concerned. Let the Human Rights Day increase our commitment to protecting the human rights of all, including the poor domestic workers, in the greater interest of our country.