Today is World Day against Child Labour being observed across the world and the theme of this year is ‘Action Taken’. One wonders who took action against whom. The growing incidents of violence against domestic workers especially children reflected the painful side of the story.
A total 74 incidents of violence against domestic workers were reported by media in the last 25 months (Jan-2019 to March-2021) at the ratio of three cases a month. The number of cases may be much higher because many cases never reached media for multiple reasons.
A report issued by Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) revealed that collected data of abuse of children who worked as domestic workers at different residences, gives a list of prominent cases of violence. Among them is torturing an 8-year-old maid to death for freeing pet parrots, torturing a 16-year-old maid to death for eating a small piece of meat from the employer’s plate and torturing a ten-year-old maid with hot knives and leather belts by a judicial officer and his wife.
