Child domestic workers continue to fall prey to abusers
Yet another incident of a minor girl domestic worker being tortured by her employees has been reported. Thankfully this time the alleged culprits—a lawyer and her husband—have been sent to remand for one day, for interrogation. The level of brutality is shocking. According to police, the girl has bruises on different parts of her body including her face and burn wounds on her hip. To think that someone who practices law could break the law in such a heinous way shows that even the most respected members of society are capable of such cruelty.
The vast majority of child domestic workers are minor girls, aged six to seventeen, who are directly sent from their villages to urban areas—completely alien to them—by poverty-stricken parents for whom it is one less mouth to feed as well as a way for the family to survive. Their vulnerability only emboldens employers to continue their abuse with impunity in most cases. According to a study conducted by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), in the period between 2008 to 2011 there were 2,709 reported incidents involving violence against domestic workers, 729 of which led to the death of the child domestic worker. Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) found that the severity of torture ranged from inhuman working hours with no rest to constant beatings (such as hitting the head against the wall, etc.) while some were even raped and as a result committed suicide.
It is important to note that abuse need not be physical in order to amount to torture. Torture can also be of an economic or mental nature (from non-payment of wages to incessant verbal abuse and infliction of trauma) and therefore needs to be recognised and condemned as crimes. Usually out of court settlements are made and torturers go scot free. As the employers of domestic workers are in a position of power compared to the domestic workers, they use their influence and money to escape punishment. Children are sent for domestic work due to poverty and thus are left at the mercy of their employers, which leave domestic workers powerless with no protection whatsoever.
Domestic work by minors must be considered hazardous work and therefore illegal under labour laws. We hope in the case of the lawyer and her husband the investigation is carried through and they are punished under the law. The government must find sustainable solutions of this problem by creating income-generating programmes for the adult members of poor families so that they are not compelled to send their children to work in households where they may fall victim to such brutality.
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