Skill development and Domestic HelpMinister of State launched the Human Resource and Skill Requirement reports across 24 sectors in India which will serve as the baseline for all skill development initiatives being planned across the country. The idea behind the Skill Gap Studies is to understand which sectors are likely to face the biggest gaps. He said, it is imperative for us to plan the skilling of future workforce of India on the basis of these reports.
According to the report, Domestic work is an important avenue of work for semi-literate or illiterate people, especially women in India since 73 percent of the female workforce is illiterate or educated only up to the primary level. This sector is significant to the economic progress of the country since it absorbs low-skilled or undereducated and acts as an enabler for educated women to enter the workforce or the labour market, as they can outsource household chores to hired domestic help. However, the sector is unorganised and domestic workers are unaware and do not understand their rights, unlike their counterparts in other organised sectors. Domestic helps in India do not enjoyprotection from labour laws and suffer from lack of dignity, as society usually perceives them as ‘servants’ doing inferior work instead of recognising them as paid professionals who mange household chores. This affects the aspirational value for such roles, which decreases the propensity to spend on training.
Rapid urbanisation, dominant and increasing participation of women and migratory population are perhaps the three distinct features that define the domestic help segment in India. Domestic work is the primary source of employment for women in the unorganised sector. Less than 1 percent of the workforce is formally trained and about 80–85 percent workers are unskilled labour. Tier 1 2 cities in India have the highest demand for domestic help. India’s economic growth would drive per capita income, resulting in more families falling under the upper middle/high income category. These families are the chief source for demand of domestic workers in the country. According to Get Domestic Help (GDH), an online job placement agency based in Delhi, at least 2.5 million households are
currently searching employees in just eight largest cities of India.