The Indian government has revealed that it is thinking about extending the employment benefits available to domestic workers.

Under the plans, such employees would be able to access new rights to health and maternity pay, in addition to death and disability allowances.

A new report has been submitted to the government about these proposals and the potential expansion of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) smart cards scheme to domestic staff.

Recommendations made to the Ministry of Labor and Employment by the Task Force on Domestic Workers also include identifying and registering this category of employees with the State Labor Department and including such activity in the central list of scheduled roles, with all state administrations required to set a minimum wage for the sector.

Recent government projections suggested India's workforce will expand between 2009-10 and 2014-15 by between ten and 11 million people a year to reach 574 million individuals.

Posted by Lee Thrace