Around 4 percent of live-in househelps in Bangladesh are abused sexually, while 21 percent suffer from physical violence and 61 percent are subjected to verbal harassment by their employers and family members, found a recent study.

The study also uncovered that house-helps are hardly granted any paid maternity leave, with only 0.5 percent being eligible for this benefit, while they earn an average of Tk 5,449 per month.

Almost 60 percent of domestic workers do not enjoy any leave and they work 10-11 hours a day, it also revealed.

The study, titled "Decent work and intersections with VAW/GBV: A study on Domestic Workers in Bangladesh", was conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), in collaboration with Dnet, Oxfam and Global Affairs Canada.

The findings were shared at an event yesterday, organised by BILS-SUNITI Project at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

The study was conducted by surveying 465 domestic workers, including live-in and live-out, and 150 employees based in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Jashore.

M Shahadat Hossain, co-founder and executive director of Dnet -- who presented the study at the event -- said, "Nearly 80 percent of domestic workers do not get any social security services."

Additional Secretary and Advisor to the World Bank ABM Khurshed said each and every domestic worker should have their NIDs so that they can be identified easily.

"Otherwise, it would be difficult to determine their numbers," he said.

Tareq Aziz, project coordinator at Oxfam in Bangladesh; Dr Wajedul Islam Khan, joint secretary general, BILS; Bellal Hossain Sheikh, director of the Department of Labour; Ataur Rahman, general secretary, Labour Rights Journalist Forum; Murad Pervez, programme quality specialist, Oxfam in Bangladesh; and M Zakir Hossain Khan, chief executive, Change Initiative; spoke at the event moderated by Shakil Akhter Chowdhury, executive editor of BILS.