Make it work
''The domestic workers should get organised.''
The Union cabinet’s decision to extend health insurance to the country’s domestic workers is welcome but it is doubtful whether the idea can be successfully implemented.
The proposal is to give a cover of Rs 30,000 to each domestic worker under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, with the Centre contributing 75 per cent of the premium and the states contributing 25 per cent.
It is estimated that there are about 5 million domestic workers in the country and they will stand to gain from the scheme. A number of schemes that have sought to help domestic workers have failed in the past for many reasons. The government has to take that into consideration before implementing the health insurance scheme.
There is no doubt that domestic workers deserve more than many other sections to be covered by the scheme. Most of them are women and are poor and illiterate. They are among the most exploited sections of workers with no fixed hours of work, no weekly leave or other benefits that workers should normally get. They do not have job security also. Because the remuneration is poor many workers take up work in more than one household.
Though there have been attempts to organise them the results have not been very promising. Their numbers have however been increasing with the growth of urbanisation, the rise in the size of the middleclass and the increase in the number of nuclear families. To make the domestic workers benefit from the scheme they have to be registered.
This is not easy as those who employ them will be unwilling to acknowledge them as workers, fearing that it might create problems like the demand for job security and other benefits. Since most of the domestic workers are illiterate they would not be aware of the scheme either.
If the government is serious about the scheme it has to first get all the domestic workers organised. This has to be done by states with the help of local self-government bodies. If they are all registered, extending insurance cover and even other benefits to them would not be difficult. Some states have tried to do this but the results have not been encouraging.
There are non-government organisations which work among domestic workers. The government machinery can seek their help and co-operation in implementing the scheme.
