Child Domestic Servants – Working for a Better Life, Needing Advocates
Terrible stories of child domestic workers being abused, even held captive, by employers are heart-wrenching. It seems as if this kind of employment should simply be banned, so these situations never happen. If only it were that easy.
It is important to recognize that child domestic work is not always abusive. Some employers take in child domestics out of sympathy. A struggling young couple in Madagascar – a seamstress and a carpenter – with a baby named Mamy, and her grandmother as well, took in Ravony. His parents “sent him out to look for work when they found themselves no longer able to feed all their children.” He preferred to rummage through the bins instead of begging. Mamy’s grandmother saw him and took him some food for a week before offering him a job as her domestic worker. As for Theo, his father died, leaving his mother with six children to support by selling yams and peanuts at the side of the road. Theo was sent to his grandmother to further his education, but when she couldn’t afford his school expenses, she asked Mamy’s parents to employ him. They did not need the extra hands in the home or the expense, but took him on to help him. He was 14 years old. Both boys sent almost all of their pay to their families.
At the age of 12, Sue Moyo left her village in and went to Harare, Zimbabwe, to work for a young couple with two children. Her employer came from the same village; they are distant relatives. She was interviewed by researcher Linda Dube at 14 years old, when Sue reported being treated like a member of the family. Although she was not always paid her monthly wages, she believed that was because she lived in her employer’s home and did not pay for her room and board. However, she appreciated the fact that her employer tried to pay her as soon as she could. With her earnings, Sue helped her parents buy agricultural inputs and tools, and she helped them work the land when she went home for long holidays over Christmas and New Year. Another child domestic worker in Harare, Maria Chingwena, helped pay for the education of her younger siblings.
At an international conference held in Trondheim in 1997, a 13-year-old girl from Senegal spoke about her life as a domestic worker, referencing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
“Do you understand how you insult me, when you talk of ‘combating’ and ‘abolishing’ the work that I do? I have worked as a domestic servant since I was eight. Because of doing this work, I have been able to go to school (which my parents in the village could not afford); I help my parents with the money I earn.I am very proud of the work I do!I joined the movement of working children, and I know what the Convention says about children’s rights: the Convention also says that you should listen to me!”
Sometimes the work conditions are difficult, but the alternatives are worse. Researcher Mélanie Jacquemin interviewed “petites bonnes” (young maids) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Chantal, at age 16, had been working for 4 months for a woman who insulted her all day; Chantal was “underfed, exhausted, and badly paid.” She wanted to leave after 2 months but had to wait for her older sister to show up.
Other interviewed girls were willing to put up with the difficult life and hard work as maids in order to buy clothes or earn money. Some hoped to save their wages to become a street vendor, a hair stylist, or a seamstress; no other possibilities were open to them. Others wanted to leave the terrible living and working conditions, but did not know someone to go to, or know how to get there.
While the lives of the little maids were difficult, some had left even more difficult situations in their homes. Mélanie did not recommend prohibition of domestic work for children, instead calling for regulation of working conditions and additional education.
Terrible stories about mistreated child domestic servants are found more often in some countries than in others, because the local culture affects how they are treated. In India, “activists are frustrated as growing middle class demand for domestic workers fuel the trade in child trafficking.” Child trafficking means that some children are effectively enslaved. Treating children like slaves should not be tolerated. Still, very poor families need more options. In India, the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) supports and educates domestic workers, including children, in 17 states. One of its programs – the Child Rights Movement - trains girls (see photo) to advocate for themselves and attend school, while working part-time as domestics.
Policy Challenges
The range of conditions experienced by child domestic workers is enormous: some are treated like family, others like slaves, and everything in-between. There is momentum in the child rights community to ban child domestic work as one of the “worst forms of child labor.” ILO Convention 189, Article 4, includes age restrictions that could make children with few options (orphans, those running from child abuse) worse off.
Policy Recommendations
Pay attention to the local situation and how child employees are generally treated. When children try to improve their situation through domestic work, in the right circumstances this strategy can help them. They need encouragement and support, including protection from abuse; not to have their efforts condemned and the opportunity taken away.
Resources
This example was written by Deborah Levison and Michael Bourdillon, based on:
Bourdillon et al. (2010), Rights and Wrongs of Children’s Work, Rutgers Univ Press, p 9, quote from Senegalese girl.
Bourdillon (2000) Earning a Life: Working Children in Zimbabwe; see Linda Dube chapter, p 101-102.
Jacquemin (2004) “Children’s Domestic Work in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,” Childhood 11(3): 383-397. See p.392.
Ravololomanga and Schlemmer (2000) “‘Unexploited’ Labour: Social Transition in Madagascar,” in The Exploited Child, edited by Bernard Schlemmer, pp 300-313. London: Zed Books.
Photo Credit for part-time domestic workers in Mumbai, India: Caroline Kupchella, 2016. More information here.