A social movement is needed

You must remember the girl ‘Aduri` who was dumped in a dustbin after being tortured by her employer. The much talked incident shook the humanity which took place at Pallabi in capital in 2013.

May be Aduri was a housemaid but she was also a loving child of her mother. Aduri had lost her father and that’s why her poor mother sent her to others house to work.

Aduri worked in a house for the sake of food only. But, the little child was tortured by her employer who cut her skin with razor blades, burnt with hot iron, beat with stick. And finally Aduri was dumped in a dustbin just like rotten garbage. Are the poor people malodorous garbage? Don’t they have honour?

Imagine once if these people don`t work then who would sweep our home? Who would feed us by cooking food? Who would clean our drawing room? Then, how we people torture these workers?  

Torturing housemaid is not a new practice in our society. So many writings have published in media but no positive recognition of these workers was seen yet. A social movement is needed in this regard because; we treat these people like a worker not a human being. Now it`s time to change the mentality.

We start showing them dishonor by calling them with various types of names. Females are called `Bua` and male are called `Kazer Sera`. It’s a common dialogue in most of the house. This type of ill practice is seen in everywhere. Don’t these people have any name? In this case we may not respect others but we haven`t the right to dishonor anyone.

The second matter is labour assessment in modern society. Are we providing the real wage of these workers? First ask yourself are we giving appropriate wage to the male or female worker who is working in your residence? A garment worker who is getting Tk.5,300 after eight hours works. But, how much are we paying to the boy or girl after working 16-18 hours a day.

That’s why an initiative should be taken from the government in this regard. A minimum wage frame should be formed for the housemaids. Besides, vacation or leisure time should be mandatory for the housemaids as it`s really painful to continue the work month after month without any vacations. The service holders know the matter very well. If any job holder gets leisure then why any housemaid will not get that? We cannot avoid the question.

A social movement is needed in this connection. We people have to come forward for the housemaids or attendant. It`s our responsibility to treat man as a human being.

The concerned ministry of the government should take steps in this regard because the government has the responsibility to remove these irregularities by implementing law. So, we hope that steps will be taken to increase the salary allowances of housemaids or attended like garment workers.
 
risingbd/Dhaka/May 28, 2015/Sontosh/Nasim/Augutin Sujan