Abused Domestic Worker, Pabna – Bangladesh

PABNA: In Bangladesh, many middle-class households employ children, mostly young girls, to take care of the house as domestic workers. By law, it is illegal to employ anyone under 18, yet the law doesn't apply to domestic workers. Without any legal protection, it has left many of these young girls vulnerable to abuse and violence.

For 13-year-old Ramela Khatun, what happened 2 years ago still haunts her. Ramela left her mother and father back in a village near Pabna to work for a police officer and his family on the other side of the country, in Chittagong.

What happened next would change her life forever. Ramela says on several occasions, the police officer's wife pushed her into boiling water and put burning hot spoons on her back for "failing to follow their instructions."

There wasn't a single day that passed for her without a beating from the officer's wife, Ramela claims.

Six months later, when her father went for a visit, he discovered his daughter's body covered in burns and bruises.

For Ramela, the inhumane treatment resulted from a modern-day slavery industry that the Bangladesh government has done little to increase protection for the domestic workers. Like many young girls trying to escape poverty, she was imprisoned in the confines of a stranger's home.

She now stays at home with her family looking for work again; when asked about going to school, she said her family couldn't afford it.

To this day, Ramela has not received the justice that she deserves. Her ex-employer is a police officer who bribed higher officials to stop her case from being filed. Like so many other girls, Ramela has fallen victim to a judicial system that fails to protect them in a culture where abuse against girls like her is part of the cultural norm.