Child housemaid allegedly tortured, locked up

Twelve-year-old victim reportedly punished for breaking a glass

A twelve-year-old child who had been “employed” at a household as a maid was allegedly “severely tortured” by her employer and his wife over her “fault” of breaking one of their water glasses.

The accused also allegedly locked the child up in a room to increase her misery.

Somehow their neighbours discovered of what had been going on and one of them informed the Child Protection Bureau about the incident.

The bureau contacted the police who raided the house and arrested the landlord, recovered the girl and got a case registered against the accused.

Police said the complainant in the case was Anam Anwar, an officer of the Child Protection Bureau, who stated in the complaint that the 12-year-old victim, a resident of Makwana Bhutto Colony, worked as a housemaid at one Idrees's house in Street No. 2, Madina Town.

She broke a glass during work on which Idrees, along with his wife, allegedly tortured the child and kept her locked up in a room.

The Child Protection Bureau officer said that Rescue 15 had been alerted about the incident by the people of the neighbourhood “on which we, along with the police, took the girl into our protection”.

Madina Town Police arrested the landlord and his wife, and a case under the provisions of the Child Act was registered against them.

In an identical incident last year in January in Dijkot, a teenage housemaid was allegedly tortured and kicked out of the house for breaking a pot.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2022.