Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

10-year-old girl saved from torturing nurse

By Ramya Kannan

Chennai March 27. Triple crimes — trafficking, child abuse and bonded labour — perpetrated on a 10- year old child by a staff nurse attached to the Stanley Medical College came to light early this week, as Child Line volunteers acted on a tip-off from concerned neighbours.

Devika (name changed), was employed in the house of the staff nurse in Mandaveli and has been allegedly systematically abused and tortured by her employers over the past three years. Recounting her experiences to the Juvenile Justice Board, Devika, said her mother had borrowed Rs. 2,000 from the employer and as a result she was sent to the house to work off the debt. Though in the initial months, she was entrusted with taking care of the family's four-year-old child, she soon progressed into the `general house help'. She was seven years old then.

"My elder sister was also working here, but she ran away and now stays with my mother. In the beginning, the family was kind to me. But soon I was given more tasks and beatings started. Sometimes I was really tired and forgot to do small things and the lady of the house also used to inflict burn injuries on me," says Devika. The Board ordered a medical examination and a report from the Institute of Child Health, Egmore, established the fact that the child was suffering from the `battered child syndrome'.

However, ironically, Devika nearly missed a chance to move out of the hell she was living in, as she turned her back on her rescuers the first time they came. Alerted by a call from a neighbour, Child Line staff from Don Bosco Anbu Illam went along with the police to the house and rescue the child. Unlettered and unaware of the service, Devika turned them away, as she was suspicious of them. It was only when the team persisted and went back the second time did she work up the courage to walk out of the house with them. She is now temporarily lodged in a shelter home and will soon be united with the family, volunteers said. Her mother, an agricultural labourer, is unable to send her to school. Therefore it would have to be examined whether action could be taken under the Bonded Labour Act and provide compensation to the child, they added.

Meanwhile, faced with problems in filing the FIR with the police, the Child Line staff decided to leave the job to the Board.

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