HYDERABAD: Life in the big city is turning quite dreadful for domestic child labourers with instances of physical abuse of them by employers and relatives becoming more rampant.

Surveys by organisations like Human Rights Law Network, M.V. Foundation and the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) have substantiated that most child labourers working in homes lead a tough existence and that the case of nine-year-old Rajita, who was physically abused by her employer, is not an isolated incident in the twin cities.

Most of the young domestic helps in the State capital are from Warangal, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar, among other places, sent here by their parents through middlemen hoping they will have access to a better life and education if they work here.

However, they often end up being abused by employers and even the employer's relatives, says Coordinator of Advocates for Child Rights, Mohd. Raheemuddin.

Inhuman treatment

<167,3p,1>An 11-year-old boy from Kadapa was regularly beaten up by his employer's son, who once placed a red-hot roti handle on the child! The child was rescued after a nearby STD booth-owner tipped off the authorities.

Similar was the case of a girl in Balanagar who was sexually abused by her employer's husband.

The employer, who knew it, informed the police only after she had a dispute with her husband.

Ill-treatment

Ill-treatment of young domestic helps does not always take obvious forms like physical abuse, says NDWM Regional Coordinator Sister Lissy Joseph.

"Verbal abuse, isolating the child, preventing him or her from meeting parents, not protecting her when she is exploited, using the child as mortgage or placing the child in circumstances that work against him or her also constitute abuse," she says.

Crime unpunished

"Domestic child abuse goes unpunished largely because of a shortcoming in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, which allows punishment of only those who employ children in hazardous work.

Domestic child labour has not been identified as `hazardous work," says Mr. Raheemuddin.

Police problem

Senior police official Tejdeep Kaur Menon recently pointed out that there was a case registered against a member of the State Women's Commission in Nampally police station for employing child labour.

Police find it difficult to take child labour cases to the point of conviction because of lack of support from victims, witnesses and even NGOs.

The requirement, many feel, is for a concerted and spirited movement to eradicate the evil.

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