Reaching the Invisible: Information dissemination amongst domestic workers in Delhi

[edited to add: not taking second part of the course]

Background

Approximately 86% of India’s non-agricultural workforce is in the informal sector (Sonali Das, 2015), and a large number of these informal workers are domestic workers. Domestic workers are people who are employed for remuneration to carry out household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare. They can be hired on a full-time, temporary, or live-in basis. While estimates range from 2.5 million to 90 million domestic workers in the country (International Labour Office, 2013), the most commonly cited figure is around 4.5 million. It is extremely difficult to count and document domestic workers due to the nature of their work – they are itinerant and work in private homes, which are most often inaccessible. Because of their inaccessibility, it is also difficult to reach domestic workers.

 This project will focus on female domestic workers. While women make up only 33 % of the Indian workforce (those who are employed or looking for employed), 2.2 % of the female workforce in India are domestic workers as household work is deemed to be suitable for females. Domestic workers can be isolating and invisible; their work is not counted in the GDP and they do not receive benefits or tailored protection from the government. It can be a lonely and difficult position.

There seem to be networks of domestic workers within cities, which help members find jobs, negotiate salaries, learn new skills, and take over shifts for one another. Evidence from USA shows “…the network interactions allow women to exert more leverage in negotiating the jobs with their employers. Women teach one another how to negotiate pay, how to placate employers, and how to get the job done in the most expedient manner.” (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994) I believe networks of domestic workers play a similar role in India.

New Delhi is a hub for attracting migrant workers, and hosts a number of domestic workers. The NGO Chetanalaya has 3188 registered domestic workers as members, and claims to have reached 10,000 domestic workers in New Delhi. Due to outreach and advocacy work that has taken place in the city, it would be a good location for this analysis.  

Some research has been conducted regarding domestic workers in India. SNA would add a new dimension to the analysis to help organize and facilitate access to social services. Rather than trying to count numbers of domestic workers, this analysis will attempt to understand the flow of information. 

Certain policies have been developed to address the needs of domestic workers. However, many will not learn of them or know how to fight for rights. Evidence from other states shows that, “The state governments of Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu have also constituted Welfare Boards for domestic workers who are able to avail of welfare benefits by registering with these Boards. However, despite these efforts, a large majority of domestic workers remain outside the purview of labour laws even today,” (United Nations , 2014). Organizations working with domestic workers are trying to establish similar government-backed initiatives in Delhi; when they are successful, information from this SNA will help them inform workers of changes in policy.

Research Questions

·         Are there existing networks of domestic workers in South Delhi? What attributes do they have in common?

·         If so, can central nodes be identified to help disseminate information? Can they help to inform how information should be designed to be understood by the majority?

Hypothesis

·         An analysis of the data will show that there are networks of domestic workers in New Delhi. Common attributes for networks will include language, geographic origin, and religion.

·         There will be certain nodes that can be targeted to help disseminate information. Further analysis of the nodes will reveal whether information can be tailored towards certain components of domestic workers in New Delhi; for example, we should be able to identify which language should be used for dissemination material in specific neighborhoods through specific well-connected nodes.

Data Collection

Collecting data for this endeavor would be incredibly difficult due to the nature of domestic work. Each worker will have to be individually interviewed, and as previously stated it can be difficult to locate and track domestic workers. Any surveying would start with placement agencies and NGOs like the National Domestic Workers Forum (NDWF). Surveyors would visit all women placed by agencies or registered with the NDWF and ask them to complete the survey. They will also ask the workers to identify others who are engaged in domestic work, and map their locations if possible. If any new names are added to the sample, surveyors will also visit those women and survey them. Hidden networks of domestic workers may be revealed in this way. Given the sheer numbers of domestic workers in the city, data collection should begin as a pilot study in one or two administrative areas of Delhi.

It is very important to capture the attribute that may lead to explaining why certain components group together.

Questions would try to get the following information:

Tie-related

•  Do you know any other female domestic workers?
• If yes,how often do you contact them?
• Weekly, monthly, annually, never
•  How do you know them?
• Family / village connection
• Met at a place of worship
• Met at a social gathering / function
• Met during course of work

Attribute-related

• How did you get your job?
• Location
• Age
•  Geographic origin
•  Languages spoken
• Religion
• Neighborhood where you work

SNA Methodology

Social network analysis will be used to create a map of domestic workers and their attributes, and used to determine the best way to disseminate information amongst the workers.

Specific measures:

• Whole-network measures will help identify the overall layout of the network. These measures will help us see if the network is sparse or dense, and at which level. We will get a sense of connected domestic workers are in Delhi
•  Clique and sub-group measures can be used to find components and factions. Further analysis of the components and factions will reveal any common attributes.
•   Ego-networks will be used to assess connectedness of individual workers within cliques. This measure will be useful in assessing whether an individual would be a good source of information for others. Highest degree and Eigenvector measures will also be used to help identify key individuals for information distribution. For example, highest in-degree will help identify women who are likely to be good disseminators of information as other women may come to them for assistance.
• Betweenness measures may reveal nodes that facilitate information sharing or block information from flowing. 
• Using data from NGOs may also help us find isolates. These women would greatly benefit from being linked with a network that is in close proximity.

Conclusion

An map of the networks of female domestic worker networks in New Delhi will help disseminate information about social protection measures and new laws. It will also help identify areas where NGOs and the government can provide more support, and reveal potential leaders who can advocate on behalf of domestic workers.

Works Cited

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (1994, February). Regulating the Unregulated?: Domestic Workers' Social Networks. Social Problems, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 50-64.

International Labour Office. (2013). Domestic workers across the world: Global and regional statistics. Geneva: ILO.

Sonali Das, S. J.-C. (2015). Women Workers in India: Why So Few Among So Many? . International Monetary Fund Working Paper.

United Nations . (2014, February 30). Rights for Domestic Workers. Retrieved from United Nations in India: http://in.one.un.org/page/rights-for-domestic-workers