Karnataka - Bangalore   

12-year-old maid escapes to freedom

By Rasheed Kappan

BANGALORE, APRIL 3. Sunita (12) was allegedly beaten, harassed and even poked with red-hot knives by her employers. She suffered this for months as a domestic servant before she made a dramatic escape on Saturday night from an apartment in the city's Krishnarajapuram area.

The girl was rescued by the Child Helpline on Sunday, barely days after two girls escaped the clutches of their employers.

Now housed at the Association for Promotion of Social Action (APSA), Sunita (name changed to protect identity) enjoys her freedom. But she earned it, risking her dear life. On Saturday night, she had climbed down from the third floor of her employer's apartment.

Hanging onto the pipes at the rear of the building, she had crept down. Down below, a tea vendor, Raju, gave her refuge and food for the night.

Sunday morning, Sunita's tale of woes shook the neighbourhood.

The sight of her bruised body with burns all over was enough for the public to alert the Child Helpline and the Concern India Foundation. She was eventually taken to the APSA home in Annasandrapalya. "She used to be beaten even for small matters.

The employers used to heat spoons and knives and poke her with them. She had burn scars on her face and arms," APSA's executive director, P. Lakshapathy, told The Hindu.

He said an APSA counsellor would speak to the girl on Monday and later produce her before the Child Welfare Committee. The panel was constituted by the Department of Women and Child Development under the Juvenile Justice Act. The panel is likely to lodge a police complaint after a medical examination of the girl.

Incidentally, her employers were a doctor and his software engineer wife. She was reportedly hired to look after an infant.

Questioned by the Concern India Foundation volunteers, the employers branded the girl as mentally disabled.

"The doctor's wife said the girl was mad and violent and that they had spent about Rs. 20,000 on her medicines. They even wanted to take her back to her hometown. But we found that she was absolutely alright and not mentally disabled," Ms. Shobha Rajan from the Foundation said.

For APSA, Sunita's is the third such child labourer rescued in the past one week alone. A six-year-old girl was rescued from a house in J.P. Nagar last week. "Her employers had brought her from Nellore in the pretext of giving her education and shelter. But she used to be woken up at 5 a.m. and made to work. There were no adults to help her," said Mr. Lakshapathy.

When she was brought to APSA, "she was malnourished," he recalled. "She was fed just two meals. There was no breakfast. And she had to sleep on the floor." A few days later, APSA had received another inmate, an 11-year-old child worker, a victim of torture and abuse, based in Jeevan Bima Nagar.

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