First-ever All India Survey on domestic workers

• Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav on Monday, November 22 flagged off the first-ever All India Survey on domestic workers. * The survey is being conducted by the Labour Bureau, Chandigarh.
• The survey aims to help the Government understand significant issues and chart evidence-based data-driven policies in regards to domestic workers.

About the Survey

• The first of its kind survey will collect information on a number of aspects such as demographic characteristics, migrant status, and more.
• Broadly, it has been classified into two groups:

1. Household Characteristics such as household size, religion, social group, usual monthly consumption expenditure, nature of dwelling unit.
2. Demographic characteristics such as name, age, relation to the head, marital status, general education level, usual principal activity status, subsidiary activity status, and status of DWs.

• In addition to collecting information on the employer, the survey will also collect information on DWs such as their age of entry, social group, migrant status, vocational training/ education, number of households served, activities performed by them, and number of days worked, duration of work, type of remuneration and its frequency, type of contract, distance traveled etc.
• The All India Survey on domestic workers is also aimed at estimating the number and proportion of domestic workers at the National and State level, percentage distribution of domestic workers concerning live-in/live-out, formal/ informal employment, migrant/non-Migrant, their wages, and other socio-economic characteristics.

Scope of the survey

• The survey will be covering all the States/ UTs of India and around 742 districts.
• Further, a total of 12,766 First Stage Units (FSUs) i.e., 6190 villages and 6576 UFS blocks will be covered in the survey.
• Also, 1,50,000 households i.e., the Ultimate Stage Units (USU) will be covered. The result of the survey is expected within a year.

Significance of survey for the domestic workers

• Domestic workers are workers who perform work in or for a private household or households.
• They provide direct and indirect care services.
• Their work may include tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children, or elderly or sick members of a family, gardening, guarding the house, driving for the family, etc.
• In India, domestic workers (DWs) constitute a significant portion of total employment in the informal sector.
• However, there is a dearth of data on the magnitude and prevailing employment conditions of DW.
• The pan India survey will be providing time series data on domestic workers.