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Plight of domestic workers

Md. Asadullah Khan
GRIM accounts of brutality on minor girls working as house maids have struck a chord in people. Aduri (11) was a maid in a house in the city. Her mistress tortured her day in and day out on suspicion that she had stolen money and gold ornaments from the house. With signs of torture and grievous injuries all over her body, halfconscious Aduri, reduced to skin and bone, was rescued from near a dustbin in the cantonment area by a police inspector and taken to DMCH for treatment.
Fourteen year old Dulee was rescued from the clutches of her mistress, but succumbed to her wounds within hours of being rescued. With burn marks all over the body, Sathi (8), a domestic help, was rescued by a Rab team on a tip-off after she was thrown down from an upper floor apartment at Uttara. The employer and his wife were later arrested by the police. These were only a few incidents of violence towards domestic workers that were reported to the police or made headlines in the media.
The oft-repeated words "children are our future, we must ensure their rights" have proved to be a hollow slogan. We employ these minor girls and boys to perform a multitude of chores that we wouldn't ever dream of delegating to our own children. The fact that these children don't have the money to buy their freedom only emboldens us to take advantage of their poverty and forlorn situation. What is more ironic is that in meetings, seminars and
rallies, mostly on Children's Day, every year, we miss no opportunity to indulge in rhetoric to establish their rights. We would all like to put the world at their feet when, perhaps, all they want is their childhood.
It is difficult to comprehend as to what prompts an employer hit a child so hard that her/ his bones are broken? What sort of mistake would cause members of an educated and affluent employer's family to gang up on a defenceless girl domestic help and subject her to harsh treatment?
What happens in most cases is that a child is taken from poor parents and condemned to a life of servitude and subservience. He/she is taken to a new environment full of unfamiliar ways that he/ she has to adapt to. What is more appalling is that she has to meet unrealistic demands made by her employers. Whatever the task she undertakes, high standards are expected. Her sense of duty, hygiene, commitment and devotion to work must be above board, and she is excluded from all recreational pursuits. She is expected to learn and adopt an alien family's values, beliefs and customs at supersonic speed. Whatever her age, she is not expected to complain or deviate from the enormous responsibility thrust on her.
She is not allowed to nurture any desire to have anything beyond that which the employer provides, never feeling tempted while being surrounded by profusion of wealth. Sometimes it so happens that young domestic workers, just on suspicion of having taken money or gold ornaments kept in open drawers, are tortured to extract a confession. In almost all cases, they are honest and try to win the confidence, love and affection of their masters through their service. When the child is unable to meet the demands the mistress places on her rickety shoulders, she is scolded in abusive language and subjected to torture.
The National Child Domestic Worker Convention , held under the auspices of the Save the Children and Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK), highlighted the sad plight of the vast mass of child domestic workers. According to a baseline survey (BBS and Unicef), other than 7.4 million children working in informal sector, as many as 4,21,000 children aged between 6-17 years, 80% of them girls, are working as child domestic workers (CDW) and are almost invisible and inaccessible to government surveillance, NGO inspection or even to neighbours. A survey by ILO and Unicef suggests that about 200,000 child workers are working in households in Dhaka city alone.
Not infrequently, the nation learns with trepidation and shock about the incidents of sexual abuse and murder of girl domestic help by some depraved people. Legal experts mak-
ing desperate efforts in ensuring child rights and trying to arrest such crimes point to the loopholes in the criminal justice system that must be plugged for curbing such crimes.
From the actual occurrence of the crime to a fair trial of the accused, the whole process is a chain consisting of police, medical examination, the court and finally the witnesses. These links are complementary to each other. If even one link is weak, there is possibility of the alleged perpetrator getting away instead of being booked. Unless the police and the medical experts are aware of their obligations and responsibilities, no amount of media campaign can help curb such crimes.
Child labour is a symptom of the social malaise of extreme poverty and unchallenged social practices. The victim's family accepts compensatory money, in most cases a big
amount for an impoverished family, and settles the case out of court without thinking about the repercussions. Looking from the distraught parents' point of view and the hassles in court cases, it is not worthwhile to fight legal battles when there is no guarantee of a fairtrial.
There are reports that many child domestic workers live and work in conditions that are oppressive, exploitative and abusive. The poignant part is that they, as they belong to the informal labour sector, are excluded from legal protection, which makes them even more vulnerable.
Bangladesh's young population (underlS), which is about 50% of the total 150 million, are a vast untapped wealth that could be turned into effective manpower. Male children supplement their poor parents' meagre income and many female children either work as house maids or slip into the clutches of women traffickers. Reports say that many of these unfortunate children, trafficked to neighbouring countries, had started out as domestics and had eventually been abused by the members of the employer's family.
Shockingly, though we all know about the abuse, some of us play it down simply by expressing a sort of indignation at the perpetra-tors who are caught in the act. Recommendations were made to policy makers in the National Child Domestic Workers convention in January 2010, about empowering children economically as well as arresting all forms of exploitation and abuse, but implementation seems to be a far cry. The government must wake up to the stark reality that this vulnerable group needs care and sustenance to bring about sustainable development in the country and ward off the malpractices in the society.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.
E-mail: aukhandk@gmail.com