A 16-year-old girl, who worked as a domestic help at many houses, was left abandoned to fend for herself on the footpath of G Block in posh Saket area with bruises, bite marks and scratches all over her body, was rescued on Monday.
After being traced by Butterfly, an NGO, she was handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) South district. The girl narrated her ordeal of not being paid for her work and being beaten up and also bitten by her employers.
An FIR has been registered under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice act, 2015 against her employers at the Saket Police Station.
She told the CWC counsellors that she had come to Delhi from her native place Jharkhand two years back with her brother-in-law and five siblings. “The girl was found crying on a footpath in Saket G block and begging for money and food for last few days. Some locals noticed her plight and called up Butterfly activists who took her with them,” said a police official. They handed her over to the CWC officials.
“She had come to Delhi with her brother-in-law. After a few days she was employed as a domestic help in a house in Old Delhi where her aunt’s daughter also worked. The employer used to ill treat her and then sent her to another person in the same area. The girl was treated badly and was beaten at the slightest pretext by her employer and was forced to wash clothes and utensils,” alleged Jas Ram Kaim, a member of CWC.
The girl could not bear the torture and left her employer’s house and came back to the former house where she was employed but she was again sent to another house in West Delhi, where she was to work for `1,500 per month. The girl continued to work in this house for an year or so under terrible conditions, said a police official.
“Before being abandoned and alone on the streets, she was employed by one Azad and Sarita Choudhury, who live in Saket G block. They made her work for one year but paid her nothing. On the contrary, she was even sent to Sonepat, at a relative’s place of the employer, for a week to work and then sent back. Sarita used to often beat her and one day slapped her face with slippers and bit her right hand. They later abandoned the girl on nearby footpath without food or money,” alleged Kaim.
The police official said after rescuing the child, she could not say where her siblings were and said no one from her family came to meet her. “The child has been admitted to a school and studying in first standard as part of her rehabilitation programme and is currently with CWC,” said the official.