Abuse of domestic workers must stop!
The picture of Lamia, an 11-year-old domestic worker, with a bruised face and injury marks all over her body, published in this daily yesterday, is a sad example of how little we have done to ensure that our children have a harassment and torture-free childhood.
Lamia was frequently tortured by her employers during the last six months she had been employed at their house in Barishal. According to the child, her employers used to torture her regularly, lock her up inside a room and shave her head so that her hair would not fall on food. Sadly, Lamia's case is not an exceptional one. There are hundreds of such cases across the country. And domestic workers not only face physical torture, they often face sexual harassment by their employers. According to a recent study, 66 percent domestic workers suffer mental torture, while 7 percent of them are raped.
However, compared to the incidents of violence against domestic workers, cases are filed only in a few of the incidents. The reasons are also known to us. The perpetrators are usually influential people and the victims are from a poor economic background; most of the families do not have the money and courage to file or run the cases. And in most of the cases, the issues are settled outside the court by threatening the victims' families and also by bribing law enforcers.
In view of the situation, we suggest such cases be filed by the government itself. If that can be done, we can hope to see some of the perpetrators convicted in the future.
Moreover, the law that exists for the protection and welfare of domestic workers should be strictly implemented. Although the Labour Act 2013 (amended) has fixed the minimum age for admission to work at 14 years, it does not include domestic workers. Thus we suggest that there should be a strict law against employing underage children in households.
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