Words are not enough to express our shock at the brutal murder of a child domestic worker allegedly by her employer. The body of the 10-year-old girl was recovered on February 27 from a freezing van in front of a hospital in Moghbazar, Dhaka. Reportedly, there were numerous injury marks on the body, including burn injuries, bruises on her head, scratch marks on her forehead and left ear, a swollen wound on the right cheek, and also severe injuries in her genitals. Police suspect that she was murdered at least two days before the body was recovered. Her employer, who claimed to be the joint editor of a weekly newspaper, allegedly hid the body in her house for a day before hiring a freezing van to keep and bury it secretly.

Read more

Our disturbing apathy towards domestic worker abuse

The details of the cruelty inflicted upon a child before her death would shake anyone. Reportedly, her employer used to torture her frequently, and the girl also told her father about it three months ago. After her father sought to take her back home, her employer demanded money from him, as compensation for things she had apparently "damaged". Her poor father couldn't provide any money, and so couldn't take her home with him either.

The question is, what could make someone torture a child like that? The alleged perpetrator clearly held a superior social position which empowered her to continue to torture the girl without having to face any question from anyone. Also, her offer to the deceased girl's father – of Tk 70,000 and a house in Savar – for not reporting the incident indicates that she wanted to dodge the law, which is outrageous.

Read more

Time to support and reskill domestic workers

While violence against domestic workers is pretty common in our society, it is rarely reported, and only in a handful of cases are the perpetrators brought under the law. One may ask: what happened to the law that was passed in 2015 specifically for this purpose? Apparently, it exists only on paper. Lack of enforcement of the law is encouraging some affluent individuals to not only employ underage workers at their houses but also to torture them without any fear of consequence. There is also a discrepancy about the minimum age for the employment of a domestic help. While according to the Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy, the minimum age for employment is 12, it is 14 years according to the labour law. Such discrepancies further compromise existing legal safeguards, and must be removed to protect our children from harassment. The state must ensure that no children need to work for survival or are exploited by any household or workstation.

In the Moghbazar case, the accused must face justice. Such a heinous crime, and other such crimes that came to the fore in the past, must be investigated and properly responded to.