NEW DELHI, JAN 12, 2013: THE International Labour Organsation (ILO) Report has revealed that there are 52.6 million domestic workers worldwide, and 83 per cent of these are women, accounting for 7.5 per cent of women's global wage employment. Of the total, 21.5 million are in Asia alone, with India (4.2 million) and China accounting for a significant proportion.

For the first time, the Report has captured the size of the domestic work sector worldwide excluding child domestic workers below the age of 15, whose number was estimated by ILO at 7.4 million in 2008. It says that 30 per cent of this crucial lifeline that supports the ‘productive' workforce : cleaning and cooking, caring for children, the elderly, sick etc are not covered by national labour laws. Asia has high number of domestic women workers at 41 per cent, followed by 37 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, reflecting availability of cheap labour in these regions.

The Report figured out the lack of data in many countries, especially India and China with ambiguous figures from different sources. The number of domestic workers in India at 4.2 million in 2004-05, representing 1 per cent of total employment, adding that there could be some margin of error. Estimates for 2009-10 by the Labour Bureau, however, put the figure at 2.7 per cent of all employed persons. The report commended the Labour Ministry for drafting a comprehensive National Policy for Domestic Workers providing provisions for basic labour rights for this section of workers, such as reasonable working hours, weekly rest, and freedom of association among others.