Strict law needed to stop torture on domestic helps

Torturing incidents on domestic helps have increased in the country. There are allegations of torture on child domestic helps. Most of the allegations are found against teachers and high officials who are holding senior posts in the administration. Such kind of violence on child domestic helps is a matter of grave concern.

According to the estimate of different organisations, around 30 lakh of people are engaged in domestic help in Bangladesh. Around 1.2 lakh children are working as domestic help in the country, according to a 2013 report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Reports of torturing incidents on domestic help are often seen to publish in the media. Torturing incidents on child domestic help are not highly focused in the media like the incidents of acid throwing and eve-teasing. Sometimes a very few reports on the issue are seen to publish but no steps are seen to take by the authorities concerned in this regard.

A child domestic help was brutally tortured by a school teacher in Gazipur as the child insisted on going home on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha this month. Last year, a case was filed against cricketer Shahadat Hossain and her wife for allegedly torturing their 11-year-old domestic help Mahfuza Akhtar Happy. Aduri, a domestic help, was dumped into a dustbin in the capital`s Pallabi in September of  2013 after torturing her. Later, the child was found alive.

According to Ain o Salis Kendro (ASK), a private organization, at least eighteen domestic helps were killed from the start of the current year to June. Of them, seven domestic helps died due to physical torture and thirteen domestic helps were aged between 7-18.

The domestic helps are the poorer section of our society. On the other hand, householders are wealthy and powerful. For this reason, the families of the domestic helps cannot file a case against the householders as they have no ability to carry out the case. At last the victim family has to compromise.  Last year, the cabinet approved the draft of "Domestic Worker Protection and Welfare Policy-2015". With this, Bangladesh has cleared its first-ever policy for domestic workers, setting 14 years as the minimum age for employment. But no application of the policy has been visible till now. Even proper application of the existing child labour law was not done till today to stop child labour.

Children of poor families are forced to work in other`s house due to extreme poverty. They are also the citizens of this country. So they have rights equal to others. The government should enact strict law for the protection of the domestic helps.  Proper steps should also be taken to ensure the exact application of the law.

risingbd/Dhaka/Sep 27, 2016/Shahed/Amirul