Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, MAY 1
Social activists, in the state, championing the call for inclusion of domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act were on Friday told by prominent teachers of law that they have to “fight for it” since people in the state are “not sensitive to laws.” This suggestion, among others, was offered at a workshop on “Inclusion of Domestic Workers in Minimum Wages Act” which was organized by the National Domestic Workers’ Movement (NDWM) Nagaland and the Assisi Centre for Integrated Development (ACID) at Development Association of Nagaland (DAN) Training Centre, 4th Mile in Dimapur.
Resource persons at the workshop, which was supported by World Solidarity Movement (WSM) and Anti-Slavery International (ASI), were the Principal of City Law College, Dimapur, P Leonard Aier and Assistant Professor at Kohima Law College, Limanochet Jamir.
While explaining about the features of the Minimum Wages Act, P Leonard Aier stated that domestic work must be included in the list of schedule employment of the state. “It is the duty of the state to pass the bill in the assembly. Only then will domestic workers get minimum wages,” he said.
Aier remarked that Nagaland is in a state of “lawlessness” where the practice of “khushi-khushi” is rampant everywhere. He also quoted the Indian Constitution thus – “The state shall within the capacity make effective provisions for securing right to work.”
Fellow teacher of law and resource person, Limanochet Jamir also underlined the need to cover domestic work by the umbrella of scheduled employment. “The moment it comes into schedule (employment), the homes where the domestic workers work becomes their workplace,” he reasoned.
Jamir pointed out that Nagas do not consider domestic workers as employees but rather as helps. “Only workers get wages and Nagaland does not consider domestic workers as workers. So there is no minimal wage,” he remarked.
Deliberating at length on the condition of domestic workers, both inter as well as intra-state migrants, in the state, Jamir said that migrant workers from within the state are treated “far better compared to migrants from outside.”
He said that the case of intra-state migrant workers was still a “slippery area.” By adopting or tagging those migrant workers from the interior districts as “family members”, he said, the employers manage to ensure that no contracts are binding and “because of which sexual violence is also happening.”
During the question hour and the discussion that followed, the recurring theme was that domestic work has been “gendered” – as 80% of the domestic workers are female. This has been attributed to “social construct.”
Direcotr of DAN, Fr Sebastian Ousepparampil, in his keynote address remarked that “among all unorganized sector, domestic workers suffer most.” He stated that there are cases in Nagaland in which domestic workers are made to toil for 18 straight hours a day.
State coordinator of NDWM, Sr Therese Vanlalhruaii, also spoke on the practice of families “adopting” young children for domestic works. “This is not legal adoption,” she reasoned. The Sister reminded that they were not seeking “for living wages but for minimum wage.”
