In June 2011, the International Labour Conference (ILO) adopted the Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (No. 189), and Recommendation No. 201 supplementing it. This is the first international labour standards dedicated to domestic workers. The international instruments recognize the economic and social value of domestic work; affirm that domestic workers have human rights and fundamental rights at work, like other workers; and call for action that address existing exclusion of domestic workers from labour and social protection, reduce decent work deficits they face and promote gender equality.

To assist the Governments and social partners in their efforts to improve the protection of domestic workers’ rights and their working and living conditions, a reliable and comprehensive situational analysis of domestic work in the country is necessary - among other aspects, the number of domestic workers and households that employ them, their socio-demographic profile, the patterns and conditions of employment, contractual arrangements, and recruitment patterns.

Through this research, ILO endeavoured to provide reliable estimates of the number of domestic workers and employer-households, together with their key socio-demographic characteristics, in response to the need expressed by tripartite constituents for more reliable information on domestic work in the country; whiletesting an innovative survey methodology for identifying and enumerating domestic workers and households that employ domestic workers, which takes into account the constraints and invisible forms of domestic work,in view of the fact that such a national survey would be, based on available information, the first of its kind in the world.