Fiscal Aid For Your Maid: 3 Easy Ways To Empower A Domestic Worker

Your domestic helper deserves financial security. In just three ways, help the most important set of people in your life become financially strong!

Being in India, we have the luxury of maids who can clean and cook, drivers who can take us to our work. They are an essential part of our work and home routines. We often realize it on the days when they take an off and our schedules go for a toss. But for their commitment and dedication, they only get a salary, a festival bonus, clothes that don’t fit us anymore and perhaps items that can’t be clicked and sold online. No paid or sick leaves. No provident fund kitty.

There are ways in which we can repay them for the good meals and safe driving! Help them become financially secure. Sitting at home or in your office, you can help domestic workers get three basic financial rights which we enjoy.

When your maid turns 60, her accumulated savings during these years is returned to her as a monthly pension.

How to enroll: The toughest part is to convince them to contribute in the scheme, the benefits of which they will see when they get old. Once that’s done, you can register your maid’s personal details on giftapension.com. The company picks up essential documents of your maid (Aadhar card, Pan card, voter ID and a passport size photo) from your doorstep and you bear onetime expense of Rs 300 for enrollment.

Through a prepaid micro pension card, they can load cash and transfer money into their pension account via designated centers. At the time of enrollment, they can choose the amount and the intervals at which they will make the contribution.

2. Bank Account for life’s savings

Yes, the much publicized Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) Savings Account can help your maid have a bank account too. It’s a zero balance savings account that comes with an ATM card and an overdraft facility after 6 months. There is very less documentation needed to open this account vis-à-vis any other bank account.

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Remember the account is a very basic one as it allows just plain banking service and there is no option to open a recurring deposit or a public provident fund.

How to enroll: Your domestic help needs to have basic documents like Aadhar card and a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card and passport size photograph. Ensure that she doesn’t have any bank account in her name elsewhere. You will have to educate her about using the debit card and using the account frequently to deposit or withdraw money.

3. Insurance that’s affordable

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) is the government’s cashless insurance scheme that provides health insurance upto Rs. 30,000 in empanelled hospitals. The insurance premium is funded by state and central governments. Each family has to pay Rs 30 at the time of enrollment and they get a smart card for availing cashless facility. However this scheme is likely to undergo a revamp now as the new government plans to bring it under a full-fledged National Health Assurance Mission (NHAM).

How to enroll: Your domestic help will need to visit the offices as mentioned on scheme’s official website for enrollment purpose. Since the scheme may be revamped, it might just make sense to wait for few months before you enroll your domestic help.

This Gruhini managed to write this post as her cook, who owns a bank account, was preparing more delicious, healthy food well in time now!

Watering a plant image via Shutterstock 

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