Objective:
Domestic Workers Sangam aims at dignity, empowerment and justice for Domestic Workers: recognition of their job, improving self-confidence, economic development, protecting and promoting rights of their child, eradicating the use of child Domestic Workers.
The project is to bring an awareness to Domestic Workers that they also have a societal status and they should have an access to the basic rights (have a minimum wages and a pension after retirement). And also, to negotiate with the employers to respect the basic rights of Domestic Workers.
This project also provides solution for the internal problems in the family of the Domestic Workers and promotes the importance of sending their children to school. It helps to give career guidance to the children of the Domestic Workers, to empower Domestic Workers and make them self efficient in order to take care of their problems by themselves in the future.
Special event: Mayday celebration
History:
A majority of mothers of child labourers work as Domestic Workers. This is a sector where it is easy to find job but it is also a sector which offers very low wage and poor working condition; there is also the practise of adult Domestic Workers taking their girl children along with them to assist in their work so that they can work in more number of houses and earn a better wage. This naturally leads to girl children ending up as child domestic workers. To address this issue, Domestic Workers Sangam was organised to fight for their rights and status as workers. They have been organized into Domestic Workers Sangam and work in collaboration with TamilNadu Domestic Workers Movement, National Domestic Workers Movement and Unorganised Workers Federation.
Domestic Workers project was started in 1992 in Kodambakkam and T. Nagar and extended to T.P. Chatram and Aminjikarai in 1999.
The Domestic Workers union has put forward a demand to the government to set up a welfare board for Domestic Workers and to fix minimum wages for domestic work.
At present a separate welfare board has been set up for Domestic Workers by the TamilNadu Government and a committee has been constituted to fix the minimum wages.
Target groups:
All the domestic workers are eligible to join the group.
The domestic workers contribute Rs.3 per month as subscription and it can be paid as annual subscription also.
Impacts:
Increase in their self confidence and increase in their motivation to participate in different activities
After a long struggle with the government the Domestic Workers have succeeded in getting an official declaration from the government that he is, at least, ready to fix a minimum wage
Domestic Workers have now a working status which they did not have for very long time and they also have a special sector for Domestic Workers
Domestic Workers now can have pension after their retirement which was not the case before
Now that they have a working status they can avail many benefits from the government like:
to have financial help for the education of their children
to have financial help for the marriage
to have financial help for medical expenses in case of accident
to have financial help in case of death
to have financial help to buy spectacles
