Child rights: 11-year-old beaten and injured ‘by employer’

CPWB says he beat her over a minor mistake

LAHORE: An 11-year-old girl child was hospitalised on Friday for injuries inflicted allegedly by her employer who had kept her for domestic help at her house in Defence Housing Authority.

An FIR was lodged against the employer at the Defence A police station on the complaint of Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CWPB) officer Rizwan Haider. CWPB spokesperson Muhammad Waseem said the child belonged to a Jaranwala village in Faisalabad. He said the child’s father had died and her mother was working as a maid at another house in the area. Waseem said there were marks of severe beating on the child’s arms and legs. He said the child told the team that she was beaten up by her employer for not properly ironing her clothes. The child told them that she was later detained in a room at the basement of the house. “She said she had escaped from an opening left for the installation of an air conditioner.”

Waseem said the child had sought refuge at a house in the neighbourhood. He said the owner had taken her to the police who refused to entertain the child’s complaint. He said the neighbour later approached the CWPB. Acting Defence SHO Asim Hameed dismissed the CPWB spokesperson’s suggestion that the police had refused to cooperate in the matter. He said the child had directly approached the police. He said they had informed her family and sent her for a medical examination. He said the Chowki Incharge had approached a resident of the neighborhoold and sent the child with her till her mother could come and collect her.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2015.