House Helping

House help type of work is considered as the lowest form of employment in many traditional hierarchical societies. Patriarchal societies rarely even acknowledge their unique contributions to the households and yet treat these workers as mere chattels. Many tasks at home are done by these domestic workers who offer themselves for employment as cooks, maids, baby sitters, laundry women and nursemaids. Household helpers are not protected by any labour laws in most poor countries and they are often abused physically and sexually by their employers with no means of redress. This exploitative situation is far worse when it comes to child domestic workers (those who are 18 years or younger) who are usually discriminated against and remain invisible to government policy makers.

It is no wonder that many of these child workers escape from abusive households and end up in the streets as homeless children. Domestic workers who are under-aged are forced to work long and odd hours with no adequate rest days. Many of them talk of their nightmare experiences with some masters who are out rightly abusive and treat them as animals to be worked to the bone. Many countries now pass laws to protect them from such callous situations by mandating a minimum pay, some degree of social security benefits, bonus pay, medical and health insurance and limitation of working hours to a maximum of ten hours per day.

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