In Uzbekistan, 260,265 people are registered as self-employed in domestic services and about 91 per cent of them are women. Muhabbat, 41, and Dilorom, 50, are domestic workers interviewed for a new UN Women study and neither is on that register. Muhabbat lives and works in a family’s home in Tashkent and did not know registration existed. Dilorom knew about it and decided against it.
The study examines how recent legal reforms and the registration system have changed domestic workers’ access to labour rights, social protection and economic security. Developed by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, it draws on labour market analysis, a legislative review and interviews with workers and officials.
Why women take this work
Among registered women, more than 113,000 work in childcare, 84,000 in housekeeping and cooking, and 32,000 in eldercare.
Muhabbat came from Jizzakh, a province 200 kilometres southwest of Tashkent, to pay for her daughter’s schooling. “People without diplomas are usually offered only very low-paid jobs,” she says. Factory work pays UZS 1.5 million (about USD 125) to UZS 2 million (about USD 165). She earns USD 300 a month, plus a room for them both and meals. Twice a year she studies for two weeks in Chirchiq, near Tashkent, toward a degree she hopes will free her.
Dilorom started cleaning houses for the same reason. “I was unable to find a good job,” she says. Five or six families call her back and she charges UZS 350,000 (about USD 30)...
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