A child domestic worker received Rs.
50,000 as compensation from employers for abuse yesterday.
A victory of sorts for the 15-year-old
Nalini (name changed) who received Rs. 50,000 from the couple who had
hired her as a domestic help and had physically abused her. The
compensation does not take away the trauma of Nalini’s pain and
humiliation. It only provides her some security for the future. It also
perhaps sends a message across to the society that the behaviour
displayed by her employers is unacceptable and punishable.
Nalini left her village near Kundapura
in Udipi district (in May 2001) and began to work in Bangalore as a
domestic worker in order to support her family. She had lost her father
to cancer and the family was deeply in debt. She had studied up to class
6th and could not afford to study further. Nor could she find
employment in her village. So when a middle class family offered a
placement as domestic worker, her family thought it was a decent option.
For the past six months Nalini had
been regularly subjected to violent physical abuse and the wound and
burn marks on her body stand testimony to that. The neighbours who were
initially mute spectators, could not bear this any longer. They
encouraged Nalini to slip out of the house and they called up 1098,
(Makkala Sahaya Vani, the toll free children’s crisis helpline) to seek
support.
Makkala Sahaya Vani (MSV) immediately
contacted the Concerned for Working Children(CWC) as CWC works in the
Udipi region. CWC in turn informed Bhima Sangha, (the union of, by and
for Working Children). So MSV, CWC and the Bhima Sangha took up the case
immediately and first of all took Nalini to a safe shelter run by
Ashadeep and provided immediate medical attention. A report was made to
the local police. The employers were summoned and the implications of
their actions were explained to them. Initially they were evasive and
defensive. Finally they accepted the terms to pay Nalini a compensation
which will be placed in a fixed deposit for her use in the future.
Nalini is now all set to go to CWC’s Vocational Training Center in
Kundapura.
Each day, in our cities, hundreds of
Nalinis are working silently, invisibly. Many of them are constantly
humiliated, physically, verbally and even sexually abused. Some children
who have experienced that have directly called MSV and sought support,
in some cases, concerned adults have done so. Please be sensitive to
this issue. Respond. React. You could be saving a life.
(For more details please contact:
Manju G, Programme Co-ordinator, The Concerned for Working Children.
Bangalore: 5234611, 5234270, 5234258)
Kavita Ratna
Director
