Torture cuffs on couple

Staff Reporter – The Telegraph


A senior official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and his wife were arrested on Friday on the charge of torturing their 15-year-old help.

Shree Prakash Mishra, 38, a deputy general manager of RBI, and his wife Madhuri Das, a homemaker, had been torturing Manjari Nayak for the past few days at their Alipore home, police said.

“They confined Manjari in a room for two days and denied her food. The girl was also beaten up,” said an officer.

The couple were charged with “voluntarily causing grievous hurt” and produced in Alipore court on Friday afternoon. They were released on bail.

Mishra lives in a central government housing complex on New Road in Alipore with his wife and two sons. A preliminary probe revealed the duo had employed Manjari, a resident of Rourkela in Orissa, around five years ago.

A senior officer said the couple should have been booked under the Child Labour Act, which prohibits hiring children below 14 years. But an investigating officer said cops needed to confirm when the girl was employed.

“We will contact the girl’s family to determine when she was employed by the accused. We are also probing how long the duo had been torturing her,” the officer added. He said Madhuri Das had told the police Manjari was the daughter of one of her distant relatives.

The police said Manjari told them her employers beat her up on Thursday night and locked her in a room. She managed to escape early on Friday and rushed to the caretaker of the housing complex.

“She told him about the torture and he took her to SSKM Hospital. There were bruises on her hands, legs and back. Cops posted at the hospital alerted Alipore police station,” the officer said.

My last post (could have said 'the first-ever", but this makes me feel like a veteran blogger, so what the hell!!) states that "This forum aims to bring together people who believe that this exploitative form of labour should be stopped, and people who want to know more about why people like us fight against this practise".
But this leaves out a large chunk of people who can make meaningful contribution to this debate- the supporters of Child Domestic Work. True, personally I do not support this practise, but then each one to her/his own.
So, though I still plan to write more about why this practise should be abolished, I promise not to be biased, and shall give equal importance to the opinion of people who are for this practise.
So blogaway (is there such a word?!.. Who cares!!) people.. :-)

Child Domestic Work in India

Child Domestic Workers are children engaged to perform domestic tasks in the home of the employer. This culturally accepted and widely prevalent practise apparantly seems to doing good to such children by providing food, shelter, and education too at times. However, a closer look would help one identify the long-term harm done to such children by denying them the opportunity to go to school, develop their own capabilities and contribute as citizens. That this issue is closely related to child trafficking, and increases the possibility of mental and physical exploitation of these children, also needs to be taken into consideration.
While the Indian Government has banned child domestic work under the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA), not enough has been done to stop this exploitative form of child labour. One big reason for this is acceptance of this practise in our society.
This forum aims to bring together people who believe that this exploitative form of labour should be stopped, and people who want to know more about why people like us fight against this practise.
Feel free to post your opinion, experiences.. anything that related to this issue - positive or negative. Ask questions, if you think you need to understand the issue. Let's take a small step towards eliminating this practise..