Published on 12:25 AM, October 02, 2013

Aduri won't have to work as domestic help

Says Meher Afroze Chumki

State Minister for the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki yesterday said Aduri, a child domestic worker who was tortured by her employers, will never have to work again as a domestic help to feed herself.
She said Dhaka Medical College Hospital's One-Stop Crisis Centre (OOC), where Aduri is receiving treatment, will arrange her rehabilitation.
The state minster was talking to reporters after visiting Aduri at DMCH.
On September 22, Aduri, 11, was found unconscious in a severely malnourished state and riddled with injuries near a dustbin in the capital's DOHS Baridhara.
Dr Bilkis Begum, coordinator at OCC, said although Aduri's condition is improving, she is still very weak.
Meanwhile, Nourin Jahan Nodi, Aduri's employer who was arrested last Friday, confessed before a magistrate to torturing Aduri for making mistakes.
She admitted to burning Aduri with hot iron and cooking utensils and beating her indiscriminately.
Nodi stated that two to three days before Aduri was found in an unconscious state, she had thrown her out of the house.
She said Aduri was put on a bus bound for Patuakhali, where Aduri hails from, but does not know what happened afterwards.
Metropolitan Magistrate Md Erfan Ullah recorded Nodi's statement and then sent her to jail.
Meanwhile, Domestic Workers Right Network formed a human chain in front of Jatiya Press Club in the capital demanding quick disposal of Aduri's case and exemplary punishment for her torturers, said a press release.