India may regulate some recruitment practices

Posted by Jim Stroud

October 18, 2006

The Delhi government is to probe the working of companies that have provided tens of thousands of female domestic help to homes in the national capital amid complaints that many are exploiting the women.

Delhi’s Labour Minister Mangat Ram Singhal says it is time the placement agencies came under the official scanner. Some workers say they are paid poorly, but there are others who claim the agencies are providing a better life.

Around 700,000 women and girls from poor families have been recruited by placement agencies to work in affluent Delhi homes for meagre salaries, say officials preparing to regulate the firms.

“We did not have much idea about this kind of trafficking earlier. It was only a few months ago that we learnt about the situation when a team of experts went to Jharkhand to attend a human rights programme,” the labour minister told IANS.

“We believe that around 700,000 people have been brought to Delhi for employment through these agencies,” he said.

According to the minister, most agencies have no proper documents and some could also be recruiting children for work, which is illegal. The government plans to do a survey to probe how the placement agencies are being run.

READ: Agencies recruiting domestic help to face heat