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Domestic workers of the state unite!

About five lakh women in the city work as domestic workers.

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Shanthi, a domestic worker, begins her day at 5am. She has to report at her employer’s home at 8am so that she can complete the chores before her employer leaves for work. Then, she has to go to another house.

“Technically, I take care of three homes. I want my two children to be educated,” she said, adding: “I could have been in a much better place if I was educated.”

Akhila Karnataka Domestic Workers’ Trade Union was inaugurated on Monday to give a voice to Shanthi and others of her ilk. The union will submit a memorandum to the labour ministry. The union has demanded that domestic workers be registered by the labour department; ID cards be issued to them; they be included in the welfare board so that their grievances can be heard; and include domestic workers under the Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill.

Shanthi is a member of the five-lakh strong workforce referred to as domestic help. Most of these women do not even consider domestic work as ‘real’ work. Govindamma, another domestic worker, introduces herself as a homemaker. Nevertheless, she, too, works in two houses as a domestic worker.

Sister Nisha, state coordinator of the Karnataka Domestic Workers’ Movement, said: “There is a huge disparity in their income. A woman may earn `1,000 in certain areas, while in some other places, the income could be as low as `700. Most women do not even get a weekly off.”

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