Sexual exploitation of domestic worker in Bengaluru highlights vulnerabilities: report

Bengaluru: Highlighting the sufferings of domestic workers, Geetha Menon who is a member of the Domestic Workers Rights Union, wrote in The News Minute that there is no mechanism to punish those who exploit a worker’s vulnerability or assault her.

Ramming her point home, Geetha Menon narrated the sexual exploitation and assault that a 29-year-old woman suffered while employed as a live-in worker at a house in Bellandur in Bengaluru.

Menon’s account comes just three days after the world observed International Domestic Workers’ Day on June 16.

Pointing out the irony of it, she wrote ‘there is no mechanism to punish those who exploited her vulnerability, assaulted her, and then called her a liar’.

Sarita (name changed), hailing from a West Bengal village, was brought to the tech city by her friend for work.

The union that Menon is part of dealt with the situation of Sarita in the past week, she said.

The situation of the woman, according to her, underlined the importance of ensuring domestic workers are recognized by the government as workers and be protected with financial and social security.

As Sarita was working at the house of the elderly couple, who treated her well, her employers’ son-in-law visited them from Delhi towards the end of May.

On May 20, the son-in-law tried to get into her bed, which she somehow stopped.

Two days later, when the man offered her money for sex she accepted and he took her to a hotel room where they had sex.

Sarita told Geetha Menon she had accepted the offer as he had loan to pay off.

However, she began to worry when she missed her period and decided to leave for her village.

As she was getting out of the house, the elderly couple’s another daughter who lives in the city happened to see Sarita on the road.

Taking Sarita back home, the woman learnt what had happened and assaulted her, breaking her rib.

Sarita’s employers accused her of trying to extort money claiming their son-in-law had forced her into sex.

Eventually, Sarita was allowed to go home. The union came to know about her plight from someone its network, and they took her to hospital.

Doctors concluded that she may have missed her period due to extremely low haemoglobin count.

Since it was a medico legal case, the hospital reported the incident to the police and cops took the victim’s statement.

However, Sarita claimed that police had told her that the employers would not pay for her medical expenses if she filed a complaint.

Once Sarita was discharged from the hospital, her employers’ daughter tearfully told the union that her brother-in-law indeed offered Sarita money for sex.

She justified his act saying that her sister had been paralysed for many years.

Geetha Menon said that many domestic workers in the same situation are being exposed to vulnerabilities, because they are mostly migrants from villagers, saddled with debts while escaping violent husbands.

As in the case of Sarita refusing to file a case, many employers get away with their crimes due to the lack of legal protection to domestic workers, she pointed out.

Menon added that another International Domestic Workers’ Day passed without the government recognizing women employed in households as workers.

She pointed out the difficulty in holding the government accountable as the Indian government has not ratified Convention 189 of the International Labour Organisation on domestic work.