THEY ARE ALSO HUMAN WHO STAND AND SERVE

"14-YEAR-OLD DOMESTIC HELP RESCUED FROM CUPBOARD OF INDUSTRIALIST" was the caption of a front page news item published in The Hindu, 15 October 2015. According to the correspondent of The Hindu, about six months ago, a 14-year old girl from Jharkhand had been placed at the house of an industrialist in Gurgaon as domestic help. Reportedly, the neighbours of the family became aware that the child is being beaten and abused by the couple. They called the CHILDLINE. The police and the volunteers of a NGO raided the house and found the hapless 14-year old kid stuffed in a cupboard in the storeroom. She had bruises all over her body and fresh stab wound in the back. Poor girl was starving and was in trauma. How can a supposedly decent family, themselves parents to infant twins, physically abuse and mercilessly beat an unpriviledged child is beyond comprehension. This not only is outrageous and loathsome, but outright EVIL.

One would rightly argue that such cases of cruelty towards an under-age domestic help are rare, However, it must be remembered that cruelty towards an under-age domestic help does not begin and end with beating and abusing him or her. Cruelty towards an under-age help begins the moment we the middle-class decide to employ (enslave?) him or her as domestic help. The official study conducted by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) estimates that 20 per cent of all domestic workers are under fourteen years of age.{Mander, Harsh (2015-06-15). Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India, FEEL Books Pvt.} These childern are trafiicked to big cities by human traffickers, who, with their glib talk and promises of big money, convince the debt-ridden and starving parents to surrender their children.

We are guilty of cruelty if we do not feel any scruple in employing unprivileged under-age children (mostly girls); We are guilty of cruelty if that under-age child is made to get up at five in the morning and to start work while we lovingly allow our own child or children to sleep till it is time for them to go to school; we are guilty of cruelty if the under-age domestic help remains at home working the whole day while our children attend schools; we are guilty of cruelty if the under-age child sleeps on the kitchen floor with only a mat as bed while our own children sleep on spring mattressed beds; we are guilty of cruelty if the under-age help spends winter months in an old threadbare sweater and a thin blanket while our children are covered in padded jackets and sleep in heated rooms and with warm blankets; we are guilty of cruelty if the under-age help is required to do the dishes of the whole family while our childern just push their plates away after finishing their meals.

Our unbridled consumerism has de-humanised us to such an extent that we consider kindness and compassionate towards fellow human being (outside of own family) as signs of a loser. Harsh Mander in his book - "Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India" - states; "I remember my childhood as a period defined by a culture of egalitarian and secular idealism. Conspicuous consumption was considered vulgar in the face of massive deprivation among the vast majority of our fellow citizens. Young people born in wealthy and middle-class homes were taught to live modestly. Children were instructed not to waste food, as there were ‘hungry children outside’. I recall getting my first set of new clothes only when I was eight years old."

I conclude my piece with a anecdote told by Farhad Dalal in an article published in the Readers' Digest: "I was struck when a friend of mine spoke of her childhood in Germany in the 1950s. The family employed a live-in-maid who helped look after the children and did much of the housework. But here is the thing: at meal times she sat at the dinner table, was a part of the conversation, and ate the same food as the family, with the family. Can you imagine the same taking place in your household? If not? Why not?" "THEY ARE ALSO HUMAN WHO STAND AND SERVE"

#socialissue #childabuse #childline #unpriviledgedchildren