95% domestic workers earn less than Rs 10,000 per month, shows data

A higher proportion of women, scheduled castes, and other backward classes enrolled as domestic workers

On Monday, the Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Bhupender Yadav, flagged the All India Survey of Domestic workers. This is the first time that a survey of domestic workers is being conducted in the country to capture the demographics of the domestic worker population concerning migration and socio-economic characteristics.

However, a Business Standard analysis of data from the eSHRAM presents some insights into the composition of domestic workers in the country. Domestic workers comprised 8.84 per cent of the total workers registered on the portal till November 21, of which 80 per cent categorised themselves as domestic cooks.

While women have been driving registrations on the eSHRAM portal—of the total workers registered, 51.9 per cent are females—in the case of domestic workers, 95.9 per cent of those registered are women. While the age distribution mimics the trend seen in overall worker registration, data indicates that more scheduled castes and other backward classes were engaged in domestic work. As against the overall ratio of 23.8 per cent workers, 26.3 per cent of all domestic workers were scheduled castes, and 42.4 per cent were other backward classes. The ratio for the general category and the scheduled tribe was lower.

In terms of salary, the situation was more deplorable than others. Overall, the proportion of workers earning Rs 10,000 per month and below was 92.36 per cent; for domestic workers, 95.4 per cent of workers were earning less than Rs 10,000 per month.

The concentration of workers in certain states was also more pronounced. Five states accounted for 80.8 per cent of registered domestic workers. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar alone accounted for 70 per cent of total registrations, with Punjab and Jharkhand contributing the remaining 10 per cent.

Despite poor remuneration, bank accounting seeding was higher among domestic workers. 89.5 per cent had provided bank account details against 87.6 per cent for the entire eSHRAM registrations.

The survey is expected to complement data from the eSHRAM portal.