Twelve-year old Mechainu Marma bears the scars from scalding all over her shoulders, chest and the left cheek. She cannot recall when boiling water was poured on her, but she remembers the incident vividly.
“One day, I was carrying hot curry from the kitchen to the dining room. My employer’s four-year-old son suddenly pushed me. I lost balance, some gravy spilled on him and he started crying. Ume [her employer] then poured boiling water on me. She said I should feel the same pain as her son.
“I ran to the bathroom to pour some cold water on the burn. But Ume and her brother dragged me out and started beating me,” the traumatised girl told this correspondent.
Mechainu was left out on a balcony without any treatment for a week. Ume Rakhain got her some ointment only when her burn wounds got infected and started giving out bad odour.
Two weeks later, Ume’s sister took the girl back to her village in Bandarban. Mechainu’s father, Mong Me Marma, took her to a local hospital in serious condition.
After more than a month, Mong finally came to Dhaka with his daughter two weeks ago and filed a case with Mohammadpur police station against Ume and her brother George Rakhain.
“We could not come earlier, because we did not have money and we knew nobody here,” jhum farmer Mong told the Dhaka Tribune on October 29.
Police SI Jahangir Alam claimed that they had failed arrest the accused as they had secured from the High Court.
The suspects could not be reached as their phones were switched off.
However, Ume’s husband Khi Mong told the Dhaka Tribune over phone on Monday that they were yet to get bail because of hartal. Khi Mong admitted that “an accident happened” after their son was hurt.
“We would have appreciated an offer for arbitration and if we were asked us to cover Mechainu’s medical expenses. But now, we are offended since they filed a case,” said Khi, an engineer.
About six years ago, Mechainu’s parents sent her to live with Ume Rakhain. Ume told them that their daughter, who was six at the time, would receive a good education in Dhaka.
But Mechainu said she was made to do housework and never saw a book.
“Soon after I came to Dhaka, I had to get used to abusive words and beatings,” Mechainu said.
Mechainu was neither allowed to see or talk to her parents over phone.
“I never got the chance to tell my parents that I was being tortured.”
