Research Abstracts on Child Labour Women Labour - Nipccd

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<strong>Research</strong> <strong>Abstracts</strong> on Child Labour, Labour and Women Labour 1998 - 2009
Domestic Worker
Jayaprakash Institute of Social Change, Kolkata. (2005).
KAP study on child domestic work : a study on knowledge, attitude and practices in
child domestic work. Kolkata : JISC. 30 p.
Key Words : 1.CHILD LABOUR 2.DOMESTIC WORKER.
Abstract : Child domestic workers (CDWs) are the children working within homes, for
wages, in cash or kind, outside their families, in domestic chores and not for commercial
purposes. The study was conducted to understand the knowledge, attitude and practices
regarding child domestic work in two gram panchayats (villages) of East Midnapore District
of West Bengal, India where a ‘Rights Based Project on CDWs’ was implemented. The
objective of the study was to understand the existing knowledge level about CDW, attitude
towards it, and to evaluate the practices related to CDW. Data was collected from review
of literature, discussions with CDWs using semi-structured questionnaires, and from
primary and secondary sources. It was found that community people and key opinion leaders
gave importance to the issue of CDW as a social problem. Programme staff had multiple
skills, level of motivation was high, and they could handle difficult and challenging situations.
It was observed that community people lacked knowledge about the health needs of CDWs.
After the intervention, knowledge level of the community increased about causes and
consequences of CDW, mobility and working environment of CDWs; and knowledge related to
different institutional services/ programmes available from the Government. On the
attitude aspects, there were gaps in relationship building, and coordination was lacking
between the various service and development institutions in the community. Parents were
considered more as units of development than a tool for development. Among the parents,
fathers generally wanted to deploy children as domestic workers. The practice was to
engage girls aged 12 to 14 years as CDWs. They were vulnerable, and they often became
school dropouts. There was no practice of maintaining an official database or recording
process at the Gram Panchayat level on CDWs of the locality. Trafficking rackets were
found to be active in villages which was a major hidden threat. Any strategic framework for
advocating about the issue to local authorities and local decision makers was lagging behind.
The negligent attitude towards CDWs decreased in the community, but local authorities did
not properly utilize the existing legislation on child protection. Strategy should made for
advocating about issues related to child domestic work, strengthening parents’ groups and
mothers’ groups, and training them in child care practices and livelihood skills development.