Volume : 6, Issue : 3, March - 2017

SOICO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE DOMESTIC WORKERS

Dr. Shinie Poulose

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<strong style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: normal;">India has experienced high GDP growth in the last decades.</span></strong><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; color: rgb(35, 31, 32);"> </span><strong style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: normal;">In the period of accelerated growth, the contribution of informal sector to the GDP was highly significant.</span></strong><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; color: rgb(35, 31, 32);"> One of the most visible changes has been the increase in participation of women in the informal sector. This change in the composition of the informal sector is not only due to the growing opportunities but also related to the move being made by unskilled male workers to semi-skilled and skilled jobs. </span><strong style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: normal;">This has enabled sections of the population to benefit from the growth around them.&nbsp; Today, over 86 per cent of workers are in the unorganized sector and as such the contribution of this sector makes to the current growth cannot be ignored. A profession that is supporting the growth in more ways is domestic work. Demographic changes such as aging populations, decline in welfare provision, increasing labour force participation of women and the challenges of balancing working life and family life in urban areas and developed countries contribute to greater demand for domestic workers. Today, paid domestic work is the fastest growing sector of employment for women. It is the availability of paid (and unpaid) domestic work that enables households to run smoothly thereby allowing them to engage in the labour market and tap the developments around them. </span></strong><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">In this aspect a modest attempt has been made to examine the socio economic conditions of the domestic workers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:&#10;justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;&#10;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;&#10;line-height:150%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><strong><span style="font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></p>