New Delhi: “They have traumatised her for the rest of her life. Her injuries speak about the torture she had to suffer,” said the mother of a 10-year-old domestic help, her voice breaking over the phone as she narrated the ordeal her daughter had to suffer.
The girl’s employers, Poornima Bagchi and husband Kaushik, have been accused of torturing the Dalit girl and physically assaulting her after hiring her as a playmate for their son. Poornima, a pilot, and Kaushik, an aeronautical engineer, have been arrested by the Delhi Police and sent to judicial custody till 2 August.
Both have also reportedly been ‘derostered’ by the respective airline carriers that employed them.
Speaking to ThePrint Friday, the girl’s mother said: “I couldn’t believe what I saw. They wouldn’t give her proper food and hit her with whatever they found in the house. She would wake up to slaps and things being thrown at her. Her face is blue, and the wounds on her body were left open.”
The girl’s parents, both daily wage labourers, have accused the Bagchi couple of confining the girl and not letting them speak to her.
This case is one among many harrowing tales of children, mostly from marginalised sections, that have come to light over the years, including cases of trafficking and minors being forced to work in hazardous environments such as factories and construction sites.
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act bans engagement of children (under the age of 14) in all occupations, and adolescents (under the age of 18) in hazardous occupations and processes.
However, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that 613 cases of child labour were registered across India in 2021, 476 in 2020, 772 in 2019, 464 in 2018, 462 in 2017 and 204 in 2016. Up to 1,820 reported cases are pending trial.
According to the last Census (2011), the child population in India stands at 25.9 crore in the age group of 5-14 years. Of this, one crore children were stated to be engaged in child labour, making up 3.9 percent of the total child population.
Also Read: ‘Choked, burnt with tongs’: Horrific story of 14-yr-old help rescued from Gurugram couple’s home
‘For want of a better life’
The family of the 10-year-old who was rescued from Dwarka said the girl had been out of school since they moved to Delhi two years ago. They added that they live in the same locality as the Bagchi family, and got in touch with each other through references.
The Bagchi couple then hired the girl, one of seven siblings, about a month ago as a playmate for their son. The girl’s parents said they had promised to take care of her.
“They (Bagchi couple) came and took her saying they would take care of her. They said they just needed her to play with their three-year-old son. We didn’t send her off to wash utensils and clothes, or sweep floors. There was no agreement of that sort. We got swayed because they said she will have a good life. No money was discussed, but the couple told us we could reach out to them in case we needed money,” her father said.
The minor’s father said the family agreed to the couple’s proposition as they were struggling to make ends meet and thought sending the child off to an apparently well-to-do family would change her life for the better. “We are poor but we wanted a better life for our daughter. So, we entrusted her with the couple. This is what they gave us in return.”
While the parents said that no terms of payment were decided, police sources told ThePrint that a verbal agreement of Rs 10,000 as payment was made between the parents and the Bagchi couple. The father, however, insisted that no money exchanged hands.
Recounting the sequence of events, the girl’s mother said, “Whenever we would call her, the woman (Poornima) would say she was working at the airport or was busy. Her husband (Kaushik) would abuse us, asking why we kept calling and even blocked our numbers.”
According to her, Poornima Bagchi called her up seven days before the girl was rescued to complain about her.
“The woman called us up to say the girl doesn’t listen and is extremely naughty. I asked her to allow me to speak to our daughter. On talking to us, the girl said they were making her do all the household chores. When I asked the couple to drop her back to our relative’s house, the woman told us that our daughter should stay with them,” said the mother.
The mother added, “She (Poornima) also said she had hired a cook and a domestic help, and assured us that our daughter would be kept well. They even said she could study and learn household work and that they would arrange for her wedding when the time came.”
“They took her on 23 June. A couple of days later, we approached them to let our daughter go with us to our village in Bihar but they said that she should stay with them so we left,” the mother said, adding they last spoke to the minor seven days before she was rescued.
The girl’s ordeal came to light Wednesday, when her relative (a paternal aunt who works at a house near the couple’s in Delhi’s Dwarka) saw her being thrashed on the balcony of the house of her employers. The couple was then confronted by the girl’s relatives. A video circulating on social media purportedly shows the Bagchi duo being manhandled and beaten up by a mob, and a separate case has been lodged in this incident of assault.
When the girl was rescued by the police, she had bruises on her face, lacerations, swollen eyes, and burn injuries on her arms. “She told me ‘mummy, they wouldn’t even let me sleep. I had to clean the whole house, utensils, clothes, everything’,” her mother said, asking: “Why would anyone do this to a 10-year-old child?”
An FIR has been registered in the case under Indian Penal Code Sections (IPC) 370 (trafficking), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 343 (wrongful confinement), 324 (causing hurt using dangerous weapons or means), besides relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, and Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016.
The minor, meanwhile, is currently being kept at a child care home. In her statement to a counsellor, she accused the couple of thrashing her regularly for not working properly.
“We don’t want money. We just want them to be punished by law so that no one ever does this brutality with anyone again,” said the father of the 10-year-old.
Tales of burns, sodomy & torture
In June this year, a former minister in Assam and his wife were arrested for allegedly beating up their 12-year-old domestic help. The woman initially claimed to have adopted the child but couldn’t submit any proof to the police at the time of arrest.
Another case that came to light was of a 14-year-old domestic help in Gurugram who was allegedly tortured by her employers. “Kamaljit Kaur (employer) heated iron tongs and applied them to my body and hurt me badly and Manish Khattar (employer) used to choke me and hurt my private parts,” stated the FIR lodged in the case in February this year.
Similarly, in September 2021, a doctor and his wife were arrested for allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old girl working as a domestic help at their home in Kerala’s Kozhikode.
Last year, a woman employer was arrested for child labour and her husband for sodomy after they were accused of forcing a 12-year-old boy into child labour and also sexually assaulting him. The police said the boy’s foot had been branded with a hot knife.
And in 2020, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly trafficked from Jharkhand and sold off in exchange for Rs 60,000 to prospective employers in Delhi. She was rescued after activists of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO, informed the police about her.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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