Child domestic workers more vulnerable to abuse
CHENNAI: A study on the conditions of children employed as domestic labour has indicated extensive physical, sexual and emotional abuse at their workplaces esulting in trauma and scarring.
Commissioned in West Bengal by `Save the Children UK' and facilitated by Chennai-based NGO `Tulir, Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse,' it was conducted among over 500 children.Most of the participants were girls, aged 11 and above. They have minimal or no education and get less than Rs.200 a month as remuneration.
The study found their average working day was 15 hours with just a couple of hours rest. Over one third of the children were dissatisfied with the food, clothes and accommodation provided by their employers and 41 per cent felt their workplace was "unsafe."
Over 68 per cent of the participants had been subjected to physical abuse, of which 46.6 per cent had injuries that were seldom attended to. About 86 per cent were abused emotionally.
More than 20 per cent of them were forced to have sexual intercourse with their abusers, with nearly as many children being subject to other forms of sexual abuse.
Trauma of a girl Hema (14) working in a Kolkata home as domestic help, was being systematically abused sexually by the master of the house ever since she attained puberty.
In the same city, in another household, Sayantani, also 14, continues to suffer physical abuse, but stopped complaining after she told her father who preferred to believe the employers' version.
Again, the researchers found that the incidents of abuse were not isolated, but repetitive and perpetrated by the employer, members of their family or someone associated with the family.
"In this way, the abuse has a strong link with the child's status as a domestic worker in that household. All children are vulnerable to abuse. Child domestic workers are even more vulnerable, given their social and economic powerlessness.
"The report indicated inadequate support systems for these children. While peers and family are the two support groups, their access to families is often restricted and peers are probably other child domestic workers, equally marginalised.
Social support structures are necessary to encourage the child and empower them to seek help as and when they need it, and later provide help in a "sensitive, timely and efficacious manner."
The researchers have highlighted the need to build awareness on the comprehensive legal and policy measures on child abuse in India and stressed that concerted efforts must be made to influence law to offer protection to all children against violence and abuse.
Source: Ramya Kannan, The Hindu