Police must investigate reports by medical staff that the 10-year-old child who died at Dhaka Medical College after reportedly setting herself on fire, had said she wanted to kill herself because she could no longer bear being abused by her employers.
The 10-year-old domestic help who was brought into the hospital by her employers from Ramna sustained 95% burns before dying on Saturday morning.
It is shameful that it is only unusually tragic cases of this type, or the high profile charges filed against cricketer Shahadat Hossain for torturing an 11-year-old domestic worker, that attract wider attention.
Ain O Salish Kendra recorded 19 deaths of domestic workers in the first nine months of last year out of some 46 reported cases of violence against domestic workers. It is probable many other cases of abuses against domestic workers committed in homes across the country go unreported.
With an estimated 400,000 children engaged in full-time domestic service, authorities must step up efforts to protect the rights of domestic workers and ensure that all children engaged in domestic work are safeguarded and provided with education.
The abuse of domestic workers is a national scandal.
As a society, we all need to get better at not tacitly accepting and tolerating the abuse of domestic workers and the deprivation of education for children who work within households.
Public awareness must be increased so more action is taken to root out abuses.
Efforts to improve working conditions in formal industries or to increase the participation of children in education will be meaningless until there is proper enforcement of the laws we have to protect domestic labourers.
The impunity and neglect which allows the rights of domestic workers to be trampled on has to end.
