Working Women in Informal Sector A Geographical Study of Domestic Workers of Varanasi City

Abstract

Women workers in the informal sector consist of the most vulnerable working newlinesegments of the society. They come from a marginalized section whose economic, newlinelegal and political status is almost amorphous, restricting them to put their voice for newlinerights. Domestic work is one of the main occupations of women in India and domestic newlineservices are emerging as the largest segment of female employment in India s service newlinesector. Yet, the exact number of domestic workers is difficult to estimate because newlinemany of these workers are often not captured exclusively by existent macro-data newlinesources. Most of the women come from the economically weaker section of the newlinesociety who have migrated from rural areas to towns and cities. Domestic workers are newlinenot normally considered as workers and their working conditions remain unregulated. newlineTheir employment situation is considered not fit for the general framework of existing newlineemployment laws. This is so because most work done by them is generally invisible newline