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“Woh aise bhaagi jaise ki woh jail se baahar aa rahi ho... Usne mujhe gale lagaya aur maine dekha ki uske haath kaanp rahe thay (She ran out of the house as though she was exiting a jail... She hugged me and I realised her hands were shaking," recalled the aunt of the 10-year-old domestic help, who was allegedly tortured and harassed by her employers in Delhi’s Dwarka.
The matter came to the fore on Wednesday, 19 July, when her paternal aunt allegedly saw the employer beat up the girl.
The employers, who are now under arrest, have been identified as Kaushik and Poornima Bagchi. DCP (Dwarka) said that while Poornima is a pilot, Kaushik works as ground staff with an airline.
A day later, The Quint visited the area and spoke to the minor's aunt, the eyewitness. While the minor's parents are on the way from their village in Bihar, the minor is now at a shelter home in Delhi.
'Saw My Niece Being Thrashed by Employer Because She Didn't Clean the Balcony Properly'
If not for the child's aunt and her cousin, the family and Delhi police would not have known that the child was being beaten up regularly by her employers.
While on her way with her daughter to work on Wednesday, 19 July, the girl’s paternal aunt spotted the minor on the balcony of the house in a four-storey building.
“We were casually talking to her from the road when the woman came and started thrashing her because she had not cleaned the balcony properly. When I asked her about it, she told me that she was beaten up regularly. Even when I asked her to come down, she refused, fearing that she would get hit more.”Victim's paternal aunt
When the aunt realised something was wrong, she called her relatives and neighbours. “The employer came out after we screamed to send the child down, and she began to use cuss words against us and refused to let her go. The woman told us to call her parents,” the aunt added.
The minor's aunt alleged to The Quint that Kaushik instigated Poornima to beat the child more.
A paramilitary force staffer, who is the accused couple's neighbour, too jumped into the argument. Though the relatives called the parents of the minor, who were in their village in Bihar, the couple refused to let the girl go. “I called up my brother and asked him what kind of a house he sent his daughter to. But, how will he know..?" said the aunt.
Another bystander, who was witness to the argument, told The Quint that a group of people, including him, went to the flat asking the couple to bring the girl down but they refused. Soon, more locals joined them after which the couple partially opened the main door. That's when the 10-year-old ran out.
Soon after, the couple too came downstairs.
“As soon as the girl came down, we were all shocked to see her condition. Her left eye was red and the portion around her eyes was swollen. Her arms had burn injuries and she had marks all over her body…”Victim's uncle told The Quint
‘Burnt me with Hot Iron, Beat Me with Belan’: Minor Tells Kin
After she was rescued, the 10-year-old told her aunts that she was beaten up on a regular basis and was not given food for a few days if she didn’t complete the household chores.
“My niece told me that once she had accidentally burnt Poornima's uniform. This made the woman so angry that she took the hot iron and placed it on her arm causing burn injuries."Victim's aunt to The Quint
The girl’s family and relatives live around 500 meters away from the apartment where she was employed. Though she was working there for about two months, none of her family members knew that she was subjected to “abuse”.
The family alleged that though the minor was employed to take care of the couple’s three-year-old son, she was made to do all the household chores including cooking and cleaning.
Narrating the ordeal, the girl told the family that she was once beaten up with a belan (rolling pin) while she was cooking.
Police officials too confirmed that the child has sustained injuries and burn marks in her body. She was taken for a medical examination and was given counselling before being sent to a shelter home in Delhi.
“She is a 10-year-old child. I was the first to carry her when she was born. Seeing her get beaten up was very difficult for me,” a relative told The Quint.
According to a video released by DCP (Dwarka) Harsh Vardhan, the child had been working at the couple’s house for at least two months. “The matter came to light in the morning at around 9 am when the beating was witnessed by the relative of the girls,” he said.
On Wednesday, two videos surfaced -- one is of the injuries inflicted on the minor, and the other one is of the couple being assaulted by locals of the area over the torture they allegedly put the minor under.
In a one minute-60 seconds long video, the couple can be seen getting beaten up, the woman’s hair being pulled and she being slapped, shoved around and hit with chappals. Initially the woman was seen fighting back and after a while she began apologising. The video also shows the man try to save his wife with him saying “Don’t hit her, she will die…”
Meanwhile, the Dwarka police said that three persons have been arrested in relation to the case registered for assaulting the couple. "The arrested persons are Jitan Singh, Guddu and Anil who are residents of nearby places. Some others are also identified and will be arrested soon," police said.
‘How Can They Do This to a Child… Is it Because we are Poor?’
A day after the incident, there was silence on the road until a man was seen walking in anger towards the house of the minor. This happened to be the victim’s maternal uncle, who upon hearing the news rushed to the spot.
“I was not here when the incident took place. How dare they touch our child and beat her? Aren’t they educated? Don’t they have brains? I am so angry that this happened,” he told The Quint.
“Unko lagta hai ki woh kuch bhi kar sakte hai kyunki hum garib hai... Accha hai ki logo ne unn dono ko peeta. Lekin woh kaafi nahi hai kyunki hamaari bachhi ko unhone bahut maara. (They think they can do what they want because we are poor... I am glad they got beaten up. But, it is not enough compared to the pain that our child has gone through."Victim's uncle to The Quint
The victim’s father is a watchman and mother a domestic help in Dwarka. Living in a small house with a family of six, they were in financial distress, which is why the girl had to start working, relatives told The Quint. The child had been pulled out of school after class five.
“Even the father of the child is to be blamed. How can he send her to work at such a young age? I will definitely ask him when he comes,” said the uncle.
Interrupting him, the aunt said, “It’s not like we want to send our children for work at a young age. We also want them to study and do something else. But we don’t have a choice. We are not well off so we need help from the children.”
‘Had No Idea They Were Capable of this'
Meanwhile, residents of the Dwarka building where the couple live said they were not aware of the assault of the minor help.
“We don’t know much about the couple because they shifted two months ago only,” a neighbour said.
A local shopkeeper said that he was shocked after he heard about the incident. “I interact with them when they come to our shop to buy essentials. I was not here when it happened but when I found out, I was shocked… I had no idea they could do this to a child," he said.
Child abuse: A Larger Cause for Concern
This is not the first time a child domestic abuse case has come to light in Delhi.
In February this year, the Gurugram police arrested a couple for allegedly torturing and assaulting a 17-year-old minor who they had hired as a domestic help. The girl, who hailed from Jharkhand, was allegedly tortured for five months before being rescued.
In the Dwarka case, the police said that an FIR under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), and 342 (wrongful confinement) and sections of the Child Labour and Juvenile Justice Act.
Here's what it means:
1. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act), 1986 states the prohibition of employment of children in certain occupations and processes.
2. Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 states: “Whoever, having the actual charge of, or control over a child assaults, abandons, abuses, exposes or wilfully neglects the child or causes or procures the child to be assaulted, abandoned, abused, exposed or neglected in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary mental or physical suffering, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine of one lakh rupees or with both”
Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has taken cognisance of the Dwarka abuse case. In a tweet from its official handle, DCPCR said:
According to a mandate by the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2004, a rescued child needs to be restored with their family soon and any backlog of wages has to be compensated for.
“The child has been given necessary medical, psychological assistance,” DCPCR added. Meanwhile, DCPCR’s data shows that the panel has facilitated the rescue of 778 children in 2021-22 (422) and 2020-2021 (336).
The Quint spoke to Sanjay Gupta, Director, Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action and Chairperson, NACG EVAC, an apex body of South Asian Assoction for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.
He said, “The problem here is the Indian psyche, where educated people believe that if they employ a poor person, they are doing them a favour. When you think about it, this 10-year-old is a child but she was employed to take care of the three-year-old toddler. That’s a wrong attitude as people think of it as charity."
On increase in child labour cases, Gupta said “The issue is not awareness or the implementation of law. The problem is child labour cases are dealt by various departments such as the police, juvenile department, labour ministry, and DCPCR. So the accountability is less when many departments come into the picture”.
Among the many solutions, Gupta said that the main one is to ensure that a single department is created to deal with such cases.
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