'We Should Never Have Left Home': Sister of Minor Help Assaulted by Employers in Gurugram

“Every time I called my sister, her phone was either switched off or unreachable. I assumed she was busy working… I didn’t know she was going through this,” said the 18-year-old sister of the minor domestic help who was beaten up, allegedly by her employers in Gurugram, for months. The accused couple has been arrested. The child had injuries all over her body when she was rescued on 7 February. On Sunday, 12 February, her elder sister – who too was employed at a house in Delhi – reached the Gurugram hospital where her sister has been admitted. This was the first time the sisters met since June 2022. The Quint met the siblings and their mother at the hospital on Monday, 13 February. Once the minor – aged 17 years – recovers, the sisters will return to their village in Jharkhand with their mother, who reached Delhi on 10 February. “When we left Jharkhand to find work in Delhi last year, we did not know that this would be the situation… If we had known, we would have never come here,” said the elder sister, as she sat next to her sibling on the hospital bed. She told The Quint that she only found out about her sister’s condition and the treatment meted out to her on 9 February. “Our uncle, who got us here and got us these jobs, called me and asked me to come to the hospital because her employers beat her up,” she said.‘Showed Scars on Call’: Mother of Minor House Help Assaulted by Gurugram CoupleWhen the elder sister saw her younger sister, she was taken aback by the severity of her injuries -- cuts on her head and arms, swollen lips, and burn marks on her hands. “This should not have happened to her… I feel very bad seeing her like this,” said the sister, as she fought back tears. For three years now, the elder sister has been in Delhi and has worked across homes as a domestic help. It is pertinent to note that she too was a minor at the time of her employment. I was brought here to work by my uncle… I returned home for two months in 2022 and returned to Delhi with my younger sister and our uncle in June.The minor help's elder sisterTheir mother had claimed that the uncle of her two daughters worked at a placement agency in Delhi and had got many girls employed in Delhi-NCR, including his two nieces. He is a part of the investigation but has not been arrested yet. On Monday, he told The Quint, “I had no idea this would happen to my niece or I would have never brought her here.” The Gurugram police have arrested the owner of the placement agency from where the 17-year-old had been hired, and another person involved in her placement. The elder sister told The Quint that when she first reached Delhi-NCR as a 15-year-old, she worked at a house in Delhi’s Janakpuri. “My employers were good and that’s why I stayed there for two years… I was promised Rs 9,000 but I would get only Rs 6,000. I left that house and went back to Jharkhand for two months and returned with my sister,” she said. After this, she got employed with a family in Delhi’s Subhash Nagar, and said, “All my employers were good people but my sister was not as lucky.” The siblings said that when they reached Delhi in 2022, they stayed with their uncle for the first few days. The minor said, “Then I got a job as a nanny at Hari Nagar. I stayed there for three months and left because they blamed me for not taking proper care of the children.” Soon after, she was employed at the Gurugram house for five months and endured torture, allegedly at the hands of the employers. She had earlier told The Quint, “They would beat me up with anything they could find – spoons, forks, hot vessels. I would sleep at 3 am because they would ask me to massage their feet and wash clothes at night. Then, I would wake up at 6 am. So, I would be tired the next day and doze off sometimes. That is why they would beat me up.” When the elder sister told her sibling that she tried calling her several times, the latter said, “I could not speak to anybody because they (employers) would snatch my phone and throw it or scream at me for speaking on the phone.” At the hospital, the elder sister keeps reminding her sibling to get rest and have regular meals. Once the minor’s condition improves, she wants to return home to her village in Jharkhand. “I do not want to come back here,” she said. Her elder sister too will return with her. “I will only go for a few days because my sister is in a bad condition. Then, I will come back to the city and work,” she said, tearing up. At home, there are three more siblings – an elder brother with an injured leg, a younger sister and another younger brother. Our eldest brother can’t work, and our parents are farmers but don’t earn a lot. This is why we both wanted to get jobs. The other two siblings are younger than us, they can’t work.The minor girl's elder sisterTheir mother, who has been staying with her younger daughter in the hospital since she reached Delhi on Friday, said, "I want to take her back and get her admitted to a school.” The minor was in class four when she left school two-three years ago. While the sisters do not remember much about school, they both said they would go back if given a chance. The elder sister said, “Nobody takes school very seriously in our village. Our parents did not ask us to leave, we stopped going ourselves. We were children then and did not know the importance of school.” Gurugram Case & Rise of Urban Class Violence: Are India's Domestic Workers Safe?

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‘We Shouldn’t Have Left Village’: Sister of Help Beaten Up by Gurugram Employers

Five days after the rescue, the elder sister – who too was employed at a house in Delhi – reached the hospital.

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Topics: Assault Human Trafficking Domestic Help