In India, 30% of the urban population lives in slums. 80% of these people work in informal sectors earning as little as $2/day. 64% of women don't have access to toilets, and 98% don't have direct water supply. 35% of the women have at least one chronic disease like TB. These factors have resulted in an unhappy and unhealthy female workforce. Maid in India addresses these issues at its core - by providing opportunities for women to improve their standard of living.
In India, maids are an essential part of our lives, but their treatment and pay do not reflect that. For millions of maids who have no recognition as a labor-force, MII organizes, trains and provides them employment, giving them access to our benefits package, including health cover, insurance, pension and child support. Our maids earn 97% more than before. This has helped us provide legitimacy to their vocation, create a healthier, more effective and more prosperous labor force.
Through MII, up to 200 maids aged 18-25 will receive training, find employment, and have access to a host of employment benefits. This microproject will add a more extensive pre-placement training curriculum to our existing project, along with enhancing our capacity and reach. In a pilot testing the new training curriculum for 40 maids, we found that maids were better able to find jobs, negotiate higher pay and retain jobs for longer.
The MII model is beneficial to both maids and employers, guaranteeing high acceptance rate in both groups. As of today, 200 maids have been employed in over 500 households in Mumbai. Our maids earn, on average, 97% more than their peers. Funding will be used for scaling the model and will focus on capacity building and expanding training avenues. With better training, we aim to provide jobs to 200 maids aged 18-25 in 2 years, including unemployed women, victims of abuse, rescued prostitutes.
