PROTECTING RIGHTS OF HOUSE-HELPS

ANY nation that wants to see progress should regard the welfare and well-being of its people as paramount for it would take the people to contribute ideas and make practical efforts to ensure that country's development.
And since countries, even when they are mono-cultural, would still have some groupings such as the rich, the poor, the handicapped and the marginalised, there is the need to identify all such groups so that their specific needs and interests could be met.
It is therefore refreshing to note that the Leading and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Ghana Alumnae Incorporated, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has presented a document dealing with the services of domestic assistants or maid-servants to the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment for consideration and subsequent incorporation into the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).
The document outlines the terms of contract, wages and benefits, maximum working hours, rest and leave periods, rights at work, enforcement and responsibilities of the domestic assistants.
The essence is to formalise the employment relationship between house-helps and their employers.
By the definition of the Children's Act 1998 (Act 560), most of the people working in most homes as house-helps or domestic assistants qualify to be classified as children because the act defines children as persons who are below the age of 18.
The Children's Act prevents the engagement of children in any form of exploitative work which deprives the child of his/her health, education or development, although the minimum age for admission to employment is 15.
In fact, most house-helps are working in the homes of knowledgeable people who deny them formal education, while they have their children, some the age of these maid-servants, in school to prepare them for a better future.
Of course, there are a few mistresses who support their house-helps to either go to school or learn some vocation, even though the house-helps continue to render their domestic services.
The DAILY GRAPHIC concedes that some house-helps, through this arrangement, have broken the vicious circle of poverty, disease and squalor into which they were born, but these cases are the exceptions rather than the rule.
It should be noted that the conditions under which most maid-servants work at homes are appalling.
Some of these domestic servants are subjected to all forms of abuse - rape, defilement, working long hours not only at home but providing extra support at such commercial joints as 'chop bars' (traditional food joints) and drinking spots.
Generally, most house-helps are treated as if they are sub-human, as their rights are abused and trampled upon, yet the country prides itself on having the most comprehensive legislation to protect the rights of children.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the time has come for Ghana to follow the trend all over the world where governments are resorting to legislation to protect domestic servants from abuse, rape and defilement.
Interestingly, in all the cases in which the rights of domestic servants are abused or trampled on, women, who should be championing the advocacy for the rights of children, take centre stage to perpetuate these acts of inhumanity against the future leaders of the country.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, wishes to appeal to women to not only scream about abuse and discrimination by their male counterparts but also lead the advocacy to secure better conditions of service for domestic assistants, otherwise known as house-helps or maid-servants.