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Time to Care for Care Workers: Ending the domestic workers’ exploitation
Overview
Care work sustains homes, societies and economies, yet domestic workers remain among the least protected workers in the world. This paper argues that domestic work is work like any other and is indispensable and that states must treat care as a human right and public good, not a private responsibility or market commodity.
It examines how colonial legacies, neoliberal economic policies, discriminatory labour and immigration laws and digital platforms drive the structural exploitation of domestic workers, particularly migrant, racialized, Indigenous, Afro-descendant and Dalit women. It highlights the role of domestic workers’ own organizing in securing rights, alongside the ongoing suppression of collective action.
The paper calls for recognition of care as a human right and public good, universal social protection, protected freedom of association, an end to discriminatory laws and regulation of platforms and the capital behind them.
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DOI
10.21201/2026.000160How to cite this resource
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