A cry that was born in Bogotá
March 30 is not just any date. It is the day when the world should stop to look into the eyes of an uncomfortable reality: that of millions of women who support other people’s homes, often without rights or recognition.
This day has a concrete and powerful origin. It was born in 1988, at the first Congress of Domestic Workers in Bogotá. There, the voices that no one was listening to came together to denounce the obvious: precarious conditions and a total absence of legal protection.
“Domestic work is one of the occupations with the highest levels of informality worldwide,” warns the International Labor Organization (ILO).
That phrase, cold in a report, hides daily dramas. Abuses, lack of social security and a vulnerability that has a woman’s name. The global economy relies on this invisible backbone, as UN Women reports point out, but prefers not to talk about it.
From ‘aid’ to right
The real goal of this commemoration is to flip the script. Stop seeing these tasks as ‘help’ or a natural duty, to recognize them for what they are: a work relationship. With rights. With obligations. With dignity.
It is political theater at its finest: making visible what was always there, but that the system decided to ignore. Every March 30 is one more act in this work where social justice still awaits its happy ending.
