Quality of Living, Health and Well-Being of Slum Dwelling Women Domestic Workers in Kolkata

Abstract

Urban sustainability is a major concern in the rapidly urbanising developing world. With escalation in city-ward in-migration and resultant dense population concentrations in informal settlements coupled with higher consumption patterns; smart, efficient and sustainable management of environmental and human resources becomes imperative. In this background, the paper focuses on the intra-urban spatial inequality in standard of living, availability and access to basic services across selected slum pockets distributed across Kolkata city. Using field survey data of slum dwelling women participating in live-out paid domestic work, an analysis is attempted regarding the level of inequality in quality of living and associated health and well-being status of the households. The paper endeavours to study the distribution pattern of housing amenities across the socio-religious groups among slum households, with special focus on women domestic helpers regarding their occupational health. Housing amenities directly influence health of household occupants. In this scenario, women’s health issues become vital to be addressed but unfortunately is often neglected because of her precarious status in the socio-economic hierarchy. There is conspicuous disparity among the northern and southern Kolkata slums in living conditions and consequential health situation. Women domestic workers endure tedious working hours under indecent paid working conditions for paltry income and simultaneously shoulder unpaid care-work responsibilities. Time-use data reveals lack of sufficient sleep time, personal care and leisure time among them, leading to psychosomatic and other diseases adversely affecting their work productivity. General caste, Hindu women and cooks perform better in health relative to scheduled categories, Muslims, house-cleaners, babysitters.