Ending exploitation thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
They have to undergo RT-PCR testing every fortnight
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) advisory to Residents’ Welfare Associations, which states that domestic help have to undergo RT-PCR testing every fortnight, has been criticised by activists as discriminatory.
Geetha Menon from the Domestic Workers’ Union described the protocol as regressive, humiliating and arbitrary in nature. “Last year, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, nearly 90% of domestic workers did not get paid for two months, as per our survey. They are being economically and socially attacked,” she said. She pointed out that there is no clarity on who should pay for the tests.
Household workers face abuse and exploitation in plain sight
I was handed a glass of water while Salma moved the extra clothes from the charpoy and adjusted herself right in front of me, fixing her shawl and making sure I was comfortable where I was sitting.
After a few minutes of small talk about the weather, she asked me about my research and I explained it to her. Her next question left me a little confused and rather annoyed at myself for not being able to answer it coherently. Salma asked if my research was helping my key subjects in any substantial way. The truth is, it wasn’t. This simply was a task that I was supposed to perform in order to get a degree that would validate my intellect of four years. However, I did see this task as a way of acknowledging and getting to know about female domestic workers who have been a major force behind the growing informal economy of Pakistan even as their labour remains hidden and invisible.