6-yr old domestic help tortured
The way the 6-year-old Eva of Comilla was tortured by her employers is inhumane and magnifies the injustice that defines the working conditions of domestic workers. The couple, now absconding, locked her up in a room whenever they went out and the wife beat her with hot cooking utensils, leaving scars on her arms. She somehow managed to run away and is now in the custody of police.
The incident speaks volumes about the helplessness of minor domestic workers. Of the hundreds of thousands of domestic workers—their exact number is not known—a staggering 80 percent are underage girls. Most of them work more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week for the pittance that we call a wage. They are excluded from the amended Labour Act 2013, depriving them of legal rights. Their contribution to the economy remains unrecongnised.
This is no way to treat a human being, let alone a 6-year-old poor girl who has to go through all these abuses for a living. Existing legal frameworks to protect their rights need to be strengthened. The Draft Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2010 should be finalised, enacted and implemented immediately. Domestic work should be included in the list of Hazardous Work from which children should be spared. The couple who tortured and abused Eva should be awarded exemplary punishment.
But none of these measures, even if implemented, is going to make much of an impact unless there is no longer demand for cheap, child labour. As a society, we have a responsibility to treat each child with the love, respect and dignity that they are worthy of.
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