Harming the hands that help us

On May 5, 2017, an employer poured boiling water over an eight-year-old domestic help – a child – for breaking a glass by mistake. She is currently suffering from burns across her head, her hands and her abdominal areas at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. On May 20, a 20-year-old domestic help in Chittagong was raped by her employers' neighbour. And on May 27, a fourteen-year-old domestic help in Chittagong, wrongfully accused of stealing money, was tied to a window grille and beaten with pieces of wood by her employer and her sister. The employers threatened to kill the girl and dump her body in a septic tank if her parents didn't give the money back. 

The housemaid who was raped, according to media reports, had been asked by her employers' neighbour to come over and help him with some work at home. The man attacked her in the absence of his family members, and threatened to harm her further if she decided to report the incident. As much as this absolves her employers of any direct crime, it still raises the issue of how safe domestic workers are in the houses they work in. 

We're well aware of how often we ask our maid or our cook to go over to a neighbour or a relative's house to help out with household chores. The workers are expected to follow these instructions with no questions asked. But along with the 'right' to ask for such service comes the duty to protect the workers in our care. In a country where sexual assault victims from privileged backgrounds struggle to get justice, one can only wonder how near-impossible it must be for the hired help to voice their concerns of safety. 

Most domestic workers tend to come from villages with little or no idea of their surroundings in the city, and without the power to stand up for themselves. Their employers are therefore responsible for their safety not only at home, but also (and especially) when they step out of the house. It's on them to make sure that the workers can talk to them openly when they feel threatened. But this also raises the most challenging question – if a worker does inform her employers of having been attacked or mistreated, would the employers support her? Would they take actions on her behalf? 

The two other incidents, meanwhile, point towards an even more alarming trend that has shamefully become a part of daily life in many households. How easily we hurl verbal abuse and push, shove, or even slap a housemaid for forgetting to do the laundry, for accidentally breaking a dish, or for standing up for herself when she is tormented. God forbid that the person who works around the clock to keep our homes spotless should feel anger, frustration, or exhaustion. God forbid that she act like an actual human being. 

The extent to which domestic workers' sufferings have always been taken for granted was proved by their complete exclusion from the Labour Act until 2016, which prompted the Domestic Workers' Protection and Welfare Policy to be formulated. The policy sets the minimum age of domestic workers at 12 years and, among other basic provisions relating to working conditions and terms of payment, requires that employers pay for their workers' medical bills and other compensation if the accident or illness occurs because of the work they're doing. It also mentions that the Ministry of Labour and Employment will file cases with the police on behalf of workers who are abused by their employers, (Dhaka Tribune, February 2, 2017). But we have yet to see this policy be translated into law and implemented. 

Domestic workers are treated with contempt because their employers take pride in being their sole financial providers. It gives them the misguided idea that paying someone a salary allows them to buy their workers' never-ending gratitude, their dignity, and their tolerance of all forms of cruelty. They forget that they're in fact paying for a professional service without which their own homes would be uninhabitable. What's worse is that most domestic workers agree with this wrong and derogatory concept. Even if the Domestic Workers' Protection and Welfare Policy were properly implemented, the government's hardest, and most important, job would be to encourage and empower domestic workers to stand up for themselves and make use of the law. 

The three incidents of torture in the past month form a mere fraction of the countless cases of domestic help abuse occurring all over the country on a near-daily basis. Last year, a total of 64 workers faced various forms of sexual, physical and psychological abuse, among whom 14 were younger than 12 years, according to Ain O Salish Kendra. Forty workers died from such violence. But the most alarming part is that these gruesome crimes against little children and vulnerable adults aren't committed by violent criminals or struggling delinquents who don't know any better. They're done by regular people like you and I – people who can be presumed to belong to civilised society if they can afford to hire help; people who are parents to their own children. The woman who beat up her maid in Chittagong last week, for instance, was a medical officer of the Chittagong General Hospital. This is a woman who tries to earn a living from treating sick patients, but feels no qualms in torturing a child for a paltry amount of Tk 2,500 that the child denies to have stolen. 

No amount of laws or social awareness campaigns will ever be enough if people aren't instilled with a basic sense of humanity. We shouldn't have to be told that it is illegal to inflict pain on a child, or a person who doesn't have the strength to fight back. We shouldn't have to be explained why it is wrong to work a six-year-old to the bone, while a more fortunate child of the same age is showered with luxury in the very next room. Instead of always blaming the authorities for failing to ensure justice, how about we ask ourselves why we hardly bat an eyelid anymore when we hear the screams of a cook, a cleaner, or a maid being tortured next door? 

The writer is a member of the Editorial Department of The Daily Star.