A 10-year-old domestic help set herself on fire in the capital’s Ramna area last month as she was unable to endure her employer’s torture.
Joba Akhter was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with 95% burns while her employer Mehedi Hasan Kollol brought her to the hospital claiming that she had set herself ablaze. But he failed to give a reason for the incident.
Groaning with pain at the hospital, Joba later said she could no longer endure the enormous work pressure and repeated physical torture by Kollol and his wife.
The girl died a day after she had been hospitalised.
Like Joba, many housemaids are killed every year in the country. In some incidents, cases were filed while others go unreported.
To ensure protection for domestic workers, the government adopted the “Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2015” late last year, but the workers are yet to enjoy their rights and protection.
Statistics show that violence against domestic workers has decreased over the last eleven years but there has been no notable success when it comes to ensuring that their rights are protected. According to Ain O Salish Kendra, 46 female workers were assaulted by their employers in 2015. The number was 61 in 2014, 78 in 2013, 100 in 2012, 117 in 2011, 81 in 2010, 83 in 2007, 126 in 2006 and 136 in 2005.
Some 828 maids were assaulted by employers over the last eight years, and 411 of them were killed, 69 were raped, eight were killed after rape, and 61 committed suicide. More than half the victims were aged between 7 to 18.
Ayesha Begum, who worked at four houses in the capital’s Mohammadpur, told the Dhaka Tribune she had to work for 12 hours a day to make Tk6,000 per month.
She said employers were mostly very rough in their attitude towards her.
“If I fell sick, my employers would force me to work more on the following day or later. If I was sick for three days or more, they would deduct a certain amount from my wage,” she said.
The situation has been found to be worse for those who live at the house where they work. They are paid a paltry wage on the ground that their food and accommodation are arranged by employers. But many such workers said their living conditions are very poor and they are provided leftover food.
Asking not to be named, a nine-year-old domestic help at Darus Salam area said she had been working at a house for the last two years.
“If I was in my hometown in Madaripur, I would have been a fourth-grader this year but poverty compelled me to stop studying and start working. In the house where I work, I sleep in the kitchen at night. Also, I am given food only after all the members of my employer’s family have their meal. Most of the time, I have to eat leftover food,” she said.
“I do not know how much I get for my work because the money is given to my family. I heard that my wage is Tk3,500 a month but Tk500 is deducted as my employer arranges my meals,” she added.
On the other hand, some domestic workers said they are treated well by their employers and are also paid on time. But they admitted that their employers do not send them to school.
None of the domestic workers the Dhaka Tribune talked to was aware of the fact that there is a policy to ensure his or her rights and protection.
Ranu, a house help in Mirpur, said: “No matter what the government does, I know that nothing can change the world for us.”
The policy, approved by the cabinet on December 21 in 2015, has been hailed by activists, who are of the opinion that this will bring a change in the lives of domestic workers.
Members of the National Domestic Women Workers Union said the situation would change as soon as the policy was implemented.
They said it will not only give domestic workers more safety and security but will go a long way to stop violence against them once implemented and enforced.
Murshida Akter, general secretary of the union, said the policy would create awareness among the masses.
“As a result, there will be less incidents of torture of domestic workers. Also, the policy will give them some kind of legal protection, which they did not have in the past,” she said.
Speaking about the issue of human rights, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is not like you have to give it to me because I am demanding it from you. As a human being, I deserve this.
“If the government wants to do something that betters the lives of domestic workers, it has to enact a law, not a policy. This is because a policy cannot make a person accountable for his work but a law can,” he added.