NEW DELHI (AFP) – A teenage girl working
as a maid in India’s capital was recovering
in hospital Tuesday after being rescued
from a home where campaigners said she
was slashed with knives and mauled by
dogs.
Police told AFP they had arrested her
employer, a 50-year-old woman who lives
with her 85-year-old mother in the
upmarket Vasant Kunj area of southern
New Delhi, on suspicion of illegal
confinement and assault.
The 15-year-old’s injuries have cast a
spotlight again on the abuse of domestic
servants in the capital where thousands of
workers, often children trafficked from
remote and poverty-stricken states, toil for
long hours in homes with almost no legal
protection.
“It is horrible and barbaric,” Kiran Walia,
Delhi’s minister for women and child
development, told reporters after visiting
the victim in a city hospital where she is
being treated for multiple injuries.
The girl, from the eastern state of
Jharkhand, reportedly told police after her
rescue on Monday night that she had been
working with her employers for the past
year and was unable to leave.
“Such a heinous crime has happened to
this girl. The whole head was smashed, the
whole body, dog bites are there,” Rishi
Kant, from the anti-trafficking campaign
group Shakti Vahini, told the NDTV news
channel, adding she had also been slashed
with knives.
“In this house they are well off, they are not
poor people,” he added after a joint
operation with police to rescue the maid.
A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the
four-storey residential block on Tuesday as
news of the rescue operation spread, with
locals saying the two women were known
as unpredictable and frequently involved in
neighbourhood disputes.
“I heard shrieks yesterday while I was
walking in the park. Then my maid came
running to me and said ‘There is something
wrong in that house, come with me’,” said
Achla Bhandari, a resident in the middle-
class neighbourhood.
“We both rushed there and tried to peek
through the windows,” she added. “I was
horrified when I saw her.”
She and other neighbours said the two
women kept five dogs and often had street
dogs roam inside their home.
Neeraj Kumar Yadav, a Vasant Kunj police
inspector, told AFP the 45-year-old
employer was in policy custody. Charges
would not be pressed against her elderly
mother on account of her age, he said.
In April last year police arrested a wealthy
doctor couple who locked up their 13-year-
old maid while they went away on holiday.
She was rescued by firefighters when
neighbours spotted her crying on an
outside balcony.
“Rich people are willing to pay any amount
of money to get servants who can clean
their houses, survive on left-over food,”
campaigner Kant told AFP recently.
“Illegal placement agencies offering
housemaids have mushroomed in every city
across India.”
“The rich employers are specifically looking
at children because they come cheaper,
complain less and can be exploited.”
In 2006 India passed legislation banning
employment of children under 14 in
households, roadside eateries and hotels,
but the law is widely flouted in the country
of 1.2 billion people.
as a maid in India’s capital was recovering
in hospital Tuesday after being rescued
from a home where campaigners said she
was slashed with knives and mauled by
dogs.
Police told AFP they had arrested her
employer, a 50-year-old woman who lives
with her 85-year-old mother in the
upmarket Vasant Kunj area of southern
New Delhi, on suspicion of illegal
confinement and assault.
The 15-year-old’s injuries have cast a
spotlight again on the abuse of domestic
servants in the capital where thousands of
workers, often children trafficked from
remote and poverty-stricken states, toil for
long hours in homes with almost no legal
protection.
“It is horrible and barbaric,” Kiran Walia,
Delhi’s minister for women and child
development, told reporters after visiting
the victim in a city hospital where she is
being treated for multiple injuries.
The girl, from the eastern state of
Jharkhand, reportedly told police after her
rescue on Monday night that she had been
working with her employers for the past
year and was unable to leave.
“Such a heinous crime has happened to
this girl. The whole head was smashed, the
whole body, dog bites are there,” Rishi
Kant, from the anti-trafficking campaign
group Shakti Vahini, told the NDTV news
channel, adding she had also been slashed
with knives.
“In this house they are well off, they are not
poor people,” he added after a joint
operation with police to rescue the maid.
A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the
four-storey residential block on Tuesday as
news of the rescue operation spread, with
locals saying the two women were known
as unpredictable and frequently involved in
neighbourhood disputes.
“I heard shrieks yesterday while I was
walking in the park. Then my maid came
running to me and said ‘There is something
wrong in that house, come with me’,” said
Achla Bhandari, a resident in the middle-
class neighbourhood.
“We both rushed there and tried to peek
through the windows,” she added. “I was
horrified when I saw her.”
She and other neighbours said the two
women kept five dogs and often had street
dogs roam inside their home.
Neeraj Kumar Yadav, a Vasant Kunj police
inspector, told AFP the 45-year-old
employer was in policy custody. Charges
would not be pressed against her elderly
mother on account of her age, he said.
In April last year police arrested a wealthy
doctor couple who locked up their 13-year-
old maid while they went away on holiday.
She was rescued by firefighters when
neighbours spotted her crying on an
outside balcony.
“Rich people are willing to pay any amount
of money to get servants who can clean
their houses, survive on left-over food,”
campaigner Kant told AFP recently.
“Illegal placement agencies offering
housemaids have mushroomed in every city
across India.”
“The rich employers are specifically looking
at children because they come cheaper,
complain less and can be exploited.”
In 2006 India passed legislation banning
employment of children under 14 in
households, roadside eateries and hotels,
but the law is widely flouted in the country
of 1.2 billion people.
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