Police verification must to get licence for domestic help agencies in Delhi

Private agencies providing domestic helps to households in the national capital will have to mandatorily undergo police verification to get licence from the Labour department, officials said on Saturday.

These agencies have to register themselves on the e-district portal under the Delhi Private Placement Agency (Regulation) Order 2014, according to a notice issued by the office of the Labour Commissioner.

The registration is without any fee and the process can be completed online.

The move will not only regulate the largely unregulated placement services sector in Delhi but also do a lot of good by protecting poor men and women from other states who work in the city homes as domestic helps and do other menial jobs, officials said.

According to an estimate, there are more than 20,000 placement agencies and at least five lakh domestic workers in the national capital, a majority of them coming from other states, they said.

The officials said police verification will be mandatory before registration and to get licence for running placement agencies to provide domestic helps.

"It will ensure better monitoring of such agencies that bring manpower to Delhi, mainly women and girls from states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal," a Labour department officer said.

The proprietors of placement agencies can apply for licence within one month of registration.

"For registration and licence of a placement agency providing domestic workers, the proprietor or managing director should get police verification certificate for himself and upload it on the website of e-district portal while submitting application," the notice read.

It is mandatory and no registration or licence will be issued without police verification, it added.

Providing domestic workers without obtaining registration and licence is violation of the Delhi Private Placement Agency (Regulation) Order 2014, for which a penalty of Rs 50,000 may be imposed by the Labour department.

"All household heads who intend to engage domestic workers through private placement agencies should ensure that these agencies have obtained registration and licence from the Labour department and are also complying with the provision of Private Placement Agency (Regulation) order 2014," the notice read.

This will ensure that men and women hired as domestic helps through placement agencies are not subjected to any exploitation and also curb the practice of child labour, the officials said.

The agency proprietors will also have to provide their PAN and bank account details during the registration process. Officials said the registration certificate will not be generated unless the agencies provide these mandatory documents.

"Often during verification exercise by the Labour department or in case of any anomaly detected, it's hard to find out the person running the placement agency due to sketchy details and incorrect address," an official said.

The labour department of the Delhi government has also written to the police commissioner seeking support in the verification of these agencies, they said.