The abuse and harassment of child domestic workers prolong in the country in the absence of strict implementation of the existing legal framework for protecting children and domestic workers, observe rights activists and experts.
At least seven domestic workers, four among them girl children below 18 years of age, were killed in the first six months of the current year, according to monthly data published by women rights body Bangladesh Mahila Parishad.
A 13-year-old girl, working at a house in Dhanmondi in Dhaka city, died as she allegedly hanged herself from the ceiling at her employer’s house in June.
Dhanmondi police officer-in-charge Kya Swee Nue told New Age that an unnatural death case was filed.
But victim’s father Habib Mia said that he could not believe that his daughter committed suicide.
‘I had talked to her four days before the owner of the house called me, saying that she was sick and asked me to urgently come to Dhaka,’ he said.
Habib alleged that the employer did not give him enough details about her condition and informed him only after her death.
OC Kya Swee Nue said, ‘Her autopsy has been done and legal action will be taken accordingly once we receive the report.’
The ‘Domestic Workers Welfare Policy 2015’ must see its implementation, stated Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fauzia Moslem as she talked to New Age, saying that child domestic workers were engaged in a highly vulnerable situation, often experiencing torture. Many girl workers are raped and even killed in the hands of their employers.
Seldom the victims and their families saw justice to be delivered to the crimes perpetrated against them, said Fauzia.
‘The abuse against children, including child domestic workers, goes on because there is no proper planning to ensure rights, including health and education of all children,’ she said.
Also the 2013 Children Act seriously lacks rigorous implementation, she states and says that this lacking encourages perpetrators to go on with their abuse of domestic workers and even more so, if they are children.
In October 2024, a 13-year-old domestic worker named Kalpana was severely tortured by her employers at a house in the capital’s Bashundhara residential area.
The police raided the house and rescued Kalpana on October 19. She was admitted to hospital with four teeth pulled out and her whole body covered in burns and bruises.
Her employer named Dinat Jahan Ador, 21, was arrested on charges of torturing domestic worker.
Kalpana, fifth among five sisters and one brother, now goes to a school in Sujan village in Lakhai upazila of Habiganj.
‘Thank god, I could go out of that hell,’ she told New Age past week. Reluctant to recall her harrowing experience of torture, she said that just to think about those things brought her too much pain.
Last year, the death of 15-year-old Preeti Urang, a member of the Urang community, one of many communities working in the tea gardens in greater Sylhet, sparked widespread public outrage.
Coming to Dhaka city from Moulvibazar’s Kamalganj upazila to work as a domestic worker, Preeti plunged to death after she reportedly fell from her employers’ eighth floor flat on Shahjahan Road in Mohammadpur on February 6.
Preeti was engaged at the residence of Syed Ashfaqul Haque, then executive editor of The Daily Star, terminated after the incident, and it was revealed that shortly before her, another girl house help was seriously injured after falling from the same residence.
‘The number of house helps was increasing each day,’ Abul Hossain, Domestic Workers’ Rights Network coordinator, told New Age.
‘Female domestic workers account for approximately 95 per cent of those engaged in the job. Of them, 40 per cent workers are below 18,’ he said.
There was no institutional framework at place to safeguard these children, he said, calling on the government to take special measures to protect child domestic workers as they were among those most vulnerable.
Mahila Parishad’s yearly report for 2024 reveals that 14 domestic workers, including nine girls, were killed, while one reportedly committed suicide.
At least 25 domestic workers, including 18 aged below 18 years, were killed in 2023, while another four reportedly committed suicide.
Human rights activist Faruq Faisel stated that the protection of underage domestic workers must be given utmost importance.
‘Their mental well-being is constantly at risk. They receive treatment far different than what is given to the children of the house. Working children are constantly weighed down by their discriminatory treatment,’ he said.
Legal experts also observe that domestic workers are deprived of fair opportunities and facilities as the 2015 Domestic Workers Welfare Policy remains hardly implemented.
The policy, among its stipulations, entitles workers to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and prohibits employers from punishing them either physically or mentally.
‘The policy needs immediate implementation,’ Faruq Faisel iterates.
‘Many child workers face violence and some even got killed and they don’t get justice. In some cases, perpetrators offer money to divert the incidents. Only a strict law can ensure justice for the victims,’ he states.
