Domestic child labor is defined as children under the age of 14 years who work in other people’s household, doing domestic chores, caring for children and running errands among other tasks(1). In developing nations with limited employment opportunities, widespread poverty and a strong social hierarchy, there is an increasing demand for domestic workers. This is compounded by the pressure on middle class families with both partners working. The domestic workload can be extremely heavy. Children engaged in these activities especially girls are easy to hire; they come in cheap; and they can be easily molded and conditioned to customize needs. Therefore they are the most sought after.

There is hardly any study conducted among the whole time domestic child workers in India in relation to their socioeconomic and health aspects. The present study was conducted to explore these issues.

In the metropolitan city of Kolkata, 2500 households were visited in which 330 domestic child laborers, between 8 and 14 years of age employed as whole time workers were recruited for the study. Data were collected through personal interviews, observations, anthropometric measurements(2) and physical examinations on a door to door basis. The survey team consisted of one medical officer, social workers and enumerators from the local area.

Hemoglobin levels were assessed in all children on the spot by cyanmethoglobin method. Stool and urine examinations were also done. Age was confirmed by available birth certificates, horoscopes and other reliable sources. Nutritional indices were computed by anthropometric measurements (girls) using validated and acceptable standards(3-5).

In the present study, majority (85.2%) of children were girls (Table I). Of these, 67% had migrated from the neighboring districts; most girls (93.0%) were Hindus. Most of their parents were illiterate (mothers 95%, father 70.9%). A significant proportion of the cohort were school drop-outs (37.8%) probably due to adverse financial status (76.0%). 48.2% of the children were engaged as maidservants that included delivering services like cleaning, sweeping, washing up clothes and utensils, dusting, fetching water etc; the rest were involved primarily in baby care (32.4%), cooking (10.6%) and outdoor duties (8.8%) such as going to shops, taking children to schools and working in tea stalls and grocery shops. Mothers of 45.2% of these children were also engaged as maidservants. While 49.1 % of the children earned Rs 101-200 per month; 2.7% were without salary.

Another 42.2% in the cohort had suffered from varieties of abuses where 35.5% were subjected to verbal and physical abuse and 3.4% to sexual abuse. The nature and type of non accidental injuries ranged from bruises, ecchymosis, pain and tenderness to frank hematoma.

Table II summarizes the disease pattern and nutritional status of female domestic child labor.

*The classification used for height for age (Waterlow, 1972); weight for age (IAP, 1972); 
weight for height (Waterlow, et al. 1977)

Investigations of health status and socioeconomic condition of domestic child labor are difficult to conduct due to the associated extreme sensitivity leading to non participation by the employers and also because of the paucity of adequate legislation relating to the issue. The present study provided a glimpse of the domestic girl workers in Kolkata city area focusing specifically on their health and financial status.

In the present study, majority of the child domestic laborers were girls as reported in earlier studies(1,6). One reason for this is probably because the employer might consider a female child domestic worker as a safer and more secure option than the male; a girl can also be effectively controlled by the mistress of the house. The observation that the majority in the study cohort migrated from elsewhere might be because of poor socioeconomic conditions in the families(7-8). Investigators had also pointed out that similar logistics could be responsible for the fact that children were compelled to take up domestic jobs(9,10). The high incidence of illiteracy among parents was reflected in their children, again an observation reported in other studies(7,11). The nature of abuse meted out to the child domestic workers depended on the employers, which might vary in degree and kind. However, the observed percentage of abuses and exploitations were higher in this cohort than reported in other studies(12,13). It would be reasonable to conclude that these abuses adversely affected the health status of the study group.

Anemia and vitamin deficiencies were present possibly due to substandard and inadequate food that the child domestic worker got from the employer. Gastrointestinal diseases detected were mostly protozoal infestation, mainly due to bad personal hygiene which once again could be linked to the treatment of the employee by the employer. The high prevalence of malnutrition was likely due to long working hours, lack of nutritious food and low income as observed by other workers(14,15).

This descriptive cross sectional survey documents the plight of domestic child labor in a metropolitan city of India.

Contributors: SRB, PB, TSV were responsible for the study design and data collection. SC, TSV and PB were responsible for analysis and drafting. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: None stated.