This is all about the plight of maids or the Masis – a word used for women domestic workers, employed by the affluent and the middle class families in this country. They clean, cook, care for children, look after elderly family members, and perform other work for their employers.
Despite their tough duty, they are among the most exploited and abused workers in Pakistan. They are overworked but underpaid and often subjected to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. In urban areas, early in the morning, swarms of maids comprising the young and aged can be seen walking briskly on their way to work; in the evening, they come trudging along clumsily due to physical fatigue, with shoppers in their hands, carrying left-over food given by the employers.
Hailing from humble backgrounds, and compelled by chronic poverty, landlessness, droughts, floods, interest-based-borrowing and subsequent circular debt, or vicious circle of debt by landlords; they migrate to big cities in search of livelihoods.
Men and women of those migrated families do work from dawn to dusk in order to keep kitchen fire burning. Male members start doing every odd job available whereas females being uneducated and unskilled start doing their job as a full-time, part–time-time and live-in-workers.
Scores of those women work in two to three households doing already agreed duties like the babysitting, cleaning, sweeping, and doing a laundry, etc.
It has been noted that because of impoverishment either young girls are allowed to be domestic workers, or when their mothers become too old to do the job; they take their young daughters to help them finish the assigned workload. New kids on the block- newcomers to particular place of work or activity –are at greater risk of becoming victims of sexual abuse.
Despite working from dawn to dusk, they are leading miserable life. Their children can be seen in tattered clothes, malnourished and diseased. They are also deprived of motherhood as their mothers are away throughout the day. The present as well as the future of the new generation of maids seems bleak and unpromising. Those engaged in domestic service live in squalid ––rooms and huts erected on plots.
Usually, they prefer to build jughees/chapra on plots with no boundary wall, which could accommodate two to three families to minimise the share of rent to be given, necessitated by their insufficient income. They thus are living without proper washrooms and toilets. They have lived for generations like this. And there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
The COVID-19 shutdown had negatively impacted the sections of Society in general, and the daily- wagers and women domestic workers in particular. Despite the country was placed under lockdown, groups of female workers had been seen doing their duty in big cities. It had grabbed the eyes of media. A certain TV channel had highlighted the case of female domestic workers’ vulnerability in terms of losing their jobs well as the paltry pay.
I asked such a group of workers as to why they attended their employers in the face of covid lockdown. They had responded that they were called by Begum Sahebas (the wives of the employers) to return to work, failing to, they would not only lose their job but also their salaries. The interviewees, with tearful eyes, had expressed in clear terms that they could not afford losing their jobs.
The modern-day masters/employers calling those workers in the wake of the then ongoing pandemic threw light on the murky environment, exploitation, and economic vulnerability that characterises domestic work in Pakistan. Calling the workers in question during the covid lockdown was akin to challenging the writ of the then provincial and federal governments that had prioritized – stay at home – as a measure to stop the spread of contagious coronavirus.
The book ‘Silent Voices, Untold Stories -Women Domestic Workers in Pakistan and their Struggle for Empowerment by Ayesha Shahid, offers a diversified, academic and research-based approach on the topic as well as issues and difficulties faced by this informal workforce in Pakistan.
The distinguished writer has convincingly explained that “Pakistan is among those developing countries where most households employ women domestic workers. Domestic service is an unregulated, unorganised, and undervalued form of employment. Domestic workers are not included in the definition of the “worker” in labor legislation. There is no law to regulate the relationship between employers and static workers in Pakistan, thus a domestic worker does not exist as a person in labor law.
As a result, domestic workers have no legal rights to a weekly rest-rest maternity leave, and public holidays is no specific complaint procedure available under labor law through which a domestic worker facing abuse could lodge complaints workers do not enjoy the same rights as industrial workers, technical workers, salespersons, and others in the formal sector employment sector do, but are given protection under the labor laws of the country.
In Pakistan, there are various social classes and there is much disparity among these classes. The unequal treatment faced by women domestic workers is an outcome of class discrimination and an integral part of patriarchal structures. An obvious reason is that the upper class does not want their workers to be aware of their rights or to be protected by law, because they fear that awareness about their rights and legal cover might encourage their uprising against the rich and the powerful.
Secondly, it is a matter of conflict of interest because if this sector is regularized and legal protection is given to these workers, the upper class will not be able to use their services by paying meagre salaries nor the domestic workers would be at the disposal of employers who could throw them out of jobs whenever they want”.
There is this network of disadvantages at play pushing them into bondage as well as hanging them out to dry. It is to be noted that the history of domestic workers being sexually harassed and abused by their recruiters dates back to the dark days of slavery.
Taking the advantage of the deprived or the already disadvantaged is an unethical and inhuman act, and unconstitutional engagement. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), around 8.5 people in Pakistan –mostly women and children are employed as domestic workers.
A plethora of problems being faced by women domestic workers in Pakistan include long and unlimited hours of work, heavy workload, lack of legal protection, violence and abuse at work either physical psychological or sexual, forced labour/child labour and trafficking of domestic workers, no minimum wage protection and low salaries, no labour inspection and law enforcement, the weaker collective bargaining position, poor living quarters, insufficient food and lack of privacy.
Islamabad Domestic Workers’ Bill 2021, the Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2019, and the Sindh Home-Based Workers Bill 2022 do seek social and economic protection for this informal workforce in question.
However, the promises made and protection prioritised in these bills are not implemented in true spirit. This is why, we continue to receive reports of domestic workers being subjected to economic deprivation and dehumanistion at the hands of their employers.
We are an Islamic society. Neither Islamic teachings nor the constitution of Pakistan allows oppressive environment and discrimination against women in every context. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) also calls on states to adopt prohibitions on sex discrimination. It requires state parties to modify social and cultural patterns of conduct, eliminate prejudice and practices that are based on the inferiority of women, provide women with rights equal to those of men in fields of employment and family benefits, and recognize the difficulties facing rural women in particular.
Pakistan is a signatory to the CEDAW and is obliged to provide protection to women domestic workers in terms of ensuring decent working conditions and remuneration proportionate to physical labour rendered by them.
The author of the aforementioned book has convincingly concluded that domestic service is only the source of survival for millions, abolishing it is not advisable. Ayesha Shahid has forwarded the idea of conducting a countrywide survey and subsequently giving them legal cover by the state and patronage by the society given their vital role in our households.
I second her conclusion as a sustainable solution. The survey under the head of ‘National Domestic Service (NDS) and registration of those rendering vital service must be put in place for the relief and much-needed reforms as per the demands of both the Constitution of Pakistan and the CEDAAW, greater responsibility is placed on the shoulders of Pakistan in terms of ensuring socioeconomic wellbeing of its domestic workers while implementing the laws passed and the acts enacted in letter and spirit.
Despite their tough duty, they are among the most exploited and abused workers in Pakistan. They are overworked but underpaid and often subjected to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. In urban areas, early in the morning, swarms of maids comprising the young and aged can be seen walking briskly on their way to work; in the evening, they come trudging along clumsily due to physical fatigue, with shoppers in their hands, carrying left-over food given by the employers.
Hailing from humble backgrounds, and compelled by chronic poverty, landlessness, droughts, floods, interest-based-borrowing and subsequent circular debt, or vicious circle of debt by landlords; they migrate to big cities in search of livelihoods.
Men and women of those migrated families do work from dawn to dusk in order to keep kitchen fire burning. Male members start doing every odd job available whereas females being uneducated and unskilled start doing their job as a full-time, part–time-time and live-in-workers.
Scores of those women work in two to three households doing already agreed duties like the babysitting, cleaning, sweeping, and doing a laundry, etc.
It has been noted that because of impoverishment either young girls are allowed to be domestic workers, or when their mothers become too old to do the job; they take their young daughters to help them finish the assigned workload. New kids on the block- newcomers to particular place of work or activity –are at greater risk of becoming victims of sexual abuse.
Despite working from dawn to dusk, they are leading miserable life. Their children can be seen in tattered clothes, malnourished and diseased. They are also deprived of motherhood as their mothers are away throughout the day. The present as well as the future of the new generation of maids seems bleak and unpromising. Those engaged in domestic service live in squalid ––rooms and huts erected on plots.
Usually, they prefer to build jughees/chapra on plots with no boundary wall, which could accommodate two to three families to minimise the share of rent to be given, necessitated by their insufficient income. They thus are living without proper washrooms and toilets. They have lived for generations like this. And there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
The COVID-19 shutdown had negatively impacted the sections of Society in general, and the daily- wagers and women domestic workers in particular. Despite the country was placed under lockdown, groups of female workers had been seen doing their duty in big cities. It had grabbed the eyes of media. A certain TV channel had highlighted the case of female domestic workers’ vulnerability in terms of losing their jobs well as the paltry pay.
I asked such a group of workers as to why they attended their employers in the face of covid lockdown. They had responded that they were called by Begum Sahebas (the wives of the employers) to return to work, failing to, they would not only lose their job but also their salaries. The interviewees, with tearful eyes, had expressed in clear terms that they could not afford losing their jobs.
The modern-day masters/employers calling those workers in the wake of the then ongoing pandemic threw light on the murky environment, exploitation, and economic vulnerability that characterises domestic work in Pakistan. Calling the workers in question during the covid lockdown was akin to challenging the writ of the then provincial and federal governments that had prioritized – stay at home – as a measure to stop the spread of contagious coronavirus.
The book ‘Silent Voices, Untold Stories -Women Domestic Workers in Pakistan and their Struggle for Empowerment by Ayesha Shahid, offers a diversified, academic and research-based approach on the topic as well as issues and difficulties faced by this informal workforce in Pakistan.
The distinguished writer has convincingly explained that “Pakistan is among those developing countries where most households employ women domestic workers. Domestic service is an unregulated, unorganised, and undervalued form of employment. Domestic workers are not included in the definition of the “worker” in labor legislation. There is no law to regulate the relationship between employers and static workers in Pakistan, thus a domestic worker does not exist as a person in labor law.
As a result, domestic workers have no legal rights to a weekly rest-rest maternity leave, and public holidays is no specific complaint procedure available under labor law through which a domestic worker facing abuse could lodge complaints workers do not enjoy the same rights as industrial workers, technical workers, salespersons, and others in the formal sector employment sector do, but are given protection under the labor laws of the country.
In Pakistan, there are various social classes and there is much disparity among these classes. The unequal treatment faced by women domestic workers is an outcome of class discrimination and an integral part of patriarchal structures. An obvious reason is that the upper class does not want their workers to be aware of their rights or to be protected by law, because they fear that awareness about their rights and legal cover might encourage their uprising against the rich and the powerful.
Secondly, it is a matter of conflict of interest because if this sector is regularized and legal protection is given to these workers, the upper class will not be able to use their services by paying meagre salaries nor the domestic workers would be at the disposal of employers who could throw them out of jobs whenever they want”.
There is this network of disadvantages at play pushing them into bondage as well as hanging them out to dry. It is to be noted that the history of domestic workers being sexually harassed and abused by their recruiters dates back to the dark days of slavery.
Taking the advantage of the deprived or the already disadvantaged is an unethical and inhuman act, and unconstitutional engagement. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), around 8.5 people in Pakistan –mostly women and children are employed as domestic workers.
A plethora of problems being faced by women domestic workers in Pakistan include long and unlimited hours of work, heavy workload, lack of legal protection, violence and abuse at work either physical psychological or sexual, forced labour/child labour and trafficking of domestic workers, no minimum wage protection and low salaries, no labour inspection and law enforcement, the weaker collective bargaining position, poor living quarters, insufficient food and lack of privacy.
Islamabad Domestic Workers’ Bill 2021, the Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2019, and the Sindh Home-Based Workers Bill 2022 do seek social and economic protection for this informal workforce in question.
However, the promises made and protection prioritised in these bills are not implemented in true spirit. This is why, we continue to receive reports of domestic workers being subjected to economic deprivation and dehumanistion at the hands of their employers.
We are an Islamic society. Neither Islamic teachings nor the constitution of Pakistan allows oppressive environment and discrimination against women in every context. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) also calls on states to adopt prohibitions on sex discrimination. It requires state parties to modify social and cultural patterns of conduct, eliminate prejudice and practices that are based on the inferiority of women, provide women with rights equal to those of men in fields of employment and family benefits, and recognize the difficulties facing rural women in particular.
Pakistan is a signatory to the CEDAW and is obliged to provide protection to women domestic workers in terms of ensuring decent working conditions and remuneration proportionate to physical labour rendered by them.
The author of the aforementioned book has convincingly concluded that domestic service is only the source of survival for millions, abolishing it is not advisable. Ayesha Shahid has forwarded the idea of conducting a countrywide survey and subsequently giving them legal cover by the state and patronage by the society given their vital role in our households.
I second her conclusion as a sustainable solution. The survey under the head of ‘National Domestic Service (NDS) and registration of those rendering vital service must be put in place for the relief and much-needed reforms as per the demands of both the Constitution of Pakistan and the CEDAAW, greater responsibility is placed on the shoulders of Pakistan in terms of ensuring socioeconomic wellbeing of its domestic workers while implementing the laws passed and the acts enacted in letter and spirit.