CHENNAI: Migrant child domestic workers, 90 percent being girls, work in environments beyond the reach of any kind of monitoring. Several recent unnatural deaths of such workers hogged media headlines, but ended up being classified as suicides. This brings into sharp focus the condition of female domestic workers.Amutha, a teen from Eraiyur, Villupuram, took up work as a domestic help in a home in Kothamangalam, Kerala, two and a half years back. She was 15 then; today she is dead. Her mother, Malar (45), said, “When an agent in our village said that there is a good opportunity to find work, I decided to send Amutha, the youngest of my five children. I hoped that the money would help in her marriage as her father is a drunkard.”Amutha, who was allowed to visit her home once a year, had made her last visit in September, a month before she died. Malar said, “When Amutha came home, she said that she didn’t want to go back to work, but didn’t say why. She cried, saying that she didn’t like working there. When she extended her holiday, her lady employer called repeatedly and even threatened not pay the outstanding salary unless she came back soon.”Her family was promised `4,000 per month for baby sitting and domestic work. This money is supposed to be paid as a lump sum once a year. In two and a half years, only `30,000 was paid.“My daughter went back to collect the outstanding amount - about `90,000,” added Amutha’s mother. On October 4, they got a call saying that their daughter was seriously ill, and asked them to rush to Kerala. “When we reached the place, we were taken straight to a police station. Amutha had died and it took five days for us to get her body. Her employers refused to meet us in person. They offered us cash to keep quiet. The handwritten postmortem stated her age to be 18, while the printed one noted her age as 25. The cause of death was given as suicide,” said her brother Elumalai.“This is one of many cases. There is an equally shocking case of a 11-year-old girl made pregnant by the Panchayat leader, in whose house she was employed. She is now waiting to deliver. Only one-tenth of the cases are reported in the media,” fumed Sis Vallarmathy, Tamil Nadu State Coordinator, National Domestic Workers Movement.It is from Villupuram that maximum number of kids leave the State to work as domestic helps, followed by Theni, Hosur, Salem, Thiruvanamalai and Chennai. Recruitment happens through local agents who, in many cases, are the only ones who know the whereabouts of the kids, while parents are kept in the dark. “Domestic workers should also be included in the Sexual Harassment Bill,” said Vallarmathy.
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