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Domestic Help’s Plight, Payal, Delhi
12 –year- old Payal worked as a domestic worker.
Childline Butterflies met her on 24th July 2006 when we received a
call from a concerned adult living in the neighbourhood of the house
she works in. For the past 7 months the caller had been hearing
Payal’s screams and when eventually she got to interact with her, she
found out from Payal the hardships she was facing at her employer’s
residence. Payal was made to work for 12-14 hours a day under immense
torture at the hands of her employer and also she had not been paid
her due salary for the past 7 months.
Butterflies Childline staff carried the rescue operation along with
Lajpat Nagar Police Station officials and directly brought her to
Butterflies Resilience Centre. A daily diary as well as Medico legal
checkup was done and as per that, Payal had physical injuries on her
forehead and arms. Later Butterflies staff came to know from Payal
that she belonged to a small village called Peepa in West Bengal,
where her father was a farmer. Due to extreme poverty, she could never
go to school. Her father had to migrate to the city to work as a daliy
wage labourer. He came to know of a placement agency through which
he sent his daughter to get employed as a domestic worker.
Payal was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, Nirmalchaya on
28th July 2005 and as directed by the honourable committee members,
Butterflies lodged a FIR against the employer under the section 26 of
JJ Act 2000. The proceedings of the case are still going on in Patiala
Court of Delhi. Payal is still staying at the Delhi State Government’s
Children’s Home for Girls called Nirmalachaya.
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