Realizing the State of Women Domestic Workers in Urban Informal Sector

Excessive workload, underpaid, isolated, continuously disparaged, violently punished are some visualizing features of millions of women and girls that are domestic workers. It reflects the decent work deficit in achieving Millennium Development Goal of promoting gender equality and women empowerment. Our economy is growing enormously and so our society. Economic and social advancements are reducing the rural-urban divide. The growth has made urban area as pool of job opportunities for rural migrants. Moreover, urban informal sector has become target area of employment because it is more flexible and suitable for the people who lack in education and high skills. Informal employment remained largely invisible in official statistics, but one of the most visible changes has been the increase in participation of women in the informal sector.

Domestic work, a prominent informal employment, is a feminine occupation. Therefore, the present paper focuses on the demographic and socio-economic status of women domestic workers, nature of the work they perform and their awareness towards some related issues. The paper stresses that there is an immediate requirement of a comprehensive strategy to empower women domestic workers to bridge the gap between formal and informal employment.