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Cry for help from abused domestic child workers – The Citizen

A young girl cleaning dishes

By Doreen Parkshard

Domestic workers in households have often been taken for granted. Not knowing their rights has been a loophole to the brutal treatment they are prone to experiencing from their employers.

The worst part is that minors under the age of 18 years are the major victims of such despicable violence.

Annastazia Peter is a 10-year-old girl living in a safe house under the Wote Sawa Domestic Workers organization.

She was brought to care after running from the household where she used to work as a housemaid.

This was a result of the brutal beatings, humiliation and oppression she had endured from her boss.

“I used to live with my mother and 14-year-old sister in Dodoma. One day a woman was brought to our house by a neighbour who told my mother that she wanted to school me and I will just be helping her out with domestic chores. My mother agreed and allowed me leave with the woman to her residence in Mwanza,'' she narrates.

Annastazia confesses to having been fooled by her mother and her employer as she looked forward to getting better education in Mwanza.

What was even more unfortunate for her was she was promised a wage of Sh 20,000 monthly but never received a single penny for a salary.

“Once we arrived the woman was kind to me and told me to help her with house chores and she will give me a salary and take me to school. I got beaten up whenever I asked about being taken to school and neither did I receive the salary I was promised. I did many domestic chores such as washing her laundry and that of her children, cooking, fetching water and cleaning yet I was starved as I watched them eat before my eyes'” Annastazia says, looking downcast and hurt.

After two months of enduring the torture and oppression from her boss, she got fed up with all she endured in the house and decided to escape.

As she hid along the streets in the middle of the night, a good samaritan hosted her for the night then took her to Wote Sawa Domestic Workers Organization where she resides now.

“I want to stay here and go to school, I want to be a president when I grow up. I want to study well and do my best in class, yet my mother calls wanting me to go back to Dodoma, where I doubt if I will ever get a chance to study,'' she says.

Annastazis pic

Annastazia PeterAnnastazia Peter. PHOTO|COURTESY


The challenge

Child protection is being questioned on the grounds whether a child should work or not as per age agreed in a given country's constitutional requirement.

Concerns over the child's wellbeing have raised by witnesses and many who have testified against acts of human trafficking, child labour and oppression.

Child law says that children are allowed to work after completion of school, at least at age of 14.

Work should not deter a child from attending classes or finding time for self-study and to rest. Children should not be hired to work at odd times such as at night.

Anyone who overworks children, or whoever does not pay them the due reward, then is breaking the law.

From such contrast, Annastazia is one of the many children in child labour abuse as she is a minor and vastly exposed to brutality and torture that legal measures have yet to be taken as the case is settled behind closed doors.

It becomes more challenging when the family has got its hands all over the situation, risking the child's welfare.

Speaking to Life&Style, the communication officer of Wote Sawa Domestic workers Organization Scholastica Gabriel explained the motives that led to the establishment of the Organization in 2012, the biggest being the ignored reality of the chaos that domestic workers go through.

Life's hardship, poverty, family and lack of are some of the other key contributing factors that increase the domestic employment of minors.

“To a large extent, families have been pushing these children to indulge in domestic work hence forcing them to drop out of school. This problem is associated with human trafficking as relatives and family members offer a hand in the process by receiving money from the demanding employers,'' she said,

The work to rehabilitate kids

For the several rescued girls, the NGO offers guidance and counselling to them to help them cope with the psychological trauma they experienced.

This helps to reshape and bring them back on track to a place where they can get to choose their paths once again.

“Those who fully recover through the counselling offered at our guidance and counselling desk get to choose what they want to do.

Based on their age and interest, they are either to receive vocational training such as handcrafts and tailoring so as to equip them to earn themselves a better source of income and refrain from domestic work. Those who are still under age and desire to study further, we take them back to school with required facilities and supervise their effective attendance and academic performance by making regular follow-up,'' she said.

Commenting on the support offered by other social welfare organisations, Scholastica applauded the cooperation offered by the police office, gender desk and local government in accessing and rescuing children exploited in domestic work.

However she pointed out shortages on legal action in support of children's welfare, especially those who are working.

The legal disposition

The advocate of Wote Sawa, Joseph Mukoji recommends reform in the children act within the constitution of Tanzania.

“Fourteen is still a minor age for a child to work, especially in a domestic environment where their whereabouts and wellbeing can hardly be traced. At such an age children are expected to be at school. 16-17 year age is more considerable for those who have failed to continue with ,'' he said.

Mukoji strongly placed emphasis on formation of more sections under children's act concerning their employment. As compared to well developed nations, it is hard to maintain child work and self-growth and still attain prosperity.

“The major issue is the environment in which the child is working. Legally, a child is expected to work for not more than six hours a day, to which extent the consideration in the payment ratio, freedom of beliefs and effective communication with families all need to be addressed,” he said.

He calls upon social welfare forces from the government and private sectors to take a keen look at the laws pertaining to children's rights.

This will ease legal and social protection measures undertaken to ensure the safety of the children in the society.

On her side Agnes Shinji, a nurse and a former social worker dealing with children welfare at CTC Arusha Selian Hospital disclosed coming across several cases of children being infected with HIV/AIDS through domestic work violence. She described domestic households as insecure places for children to work.

She said a child working is not such a bad thing.

It was established from the essence of building capacity for children to learn taking responsibility. But its implementation is still challenging as compared to more developed countries.

“A child learning to earn an income is a good thing as it builds a sense of self-accountability. However, a child is supposed to work not more than six hours a day after classes, something that is hardly applicable in Tanzania where a child has an lesser class sessions,'' she said.

She further distinguished work conditions for children, saying that it should not interfere with a child's studies, and should not harm the child physically, emotionally and mentally.

For the case of domestic work it makes it hard to do a fall up on the requisites as how a child is in domestic residence.

“Domestic child work abuse is hard to trace simply because a child lives within the hostile environment of the employer. Once social welfare goes by for surveillance, the family claims that the child is a member of the family. You cannot question further after hearing that. If you attempt to ask the child on how they are being treated, they simply say that they live well despite being abused and maltreated,” she adds.

Agnes describes how the general overview of child acts poses contradiction as it struggles with protecting children in these situations.

“It failed to describe key features and elaborate on the type of work a child should do, under which supervision, what systems will be used to ensure that work does not intervene with the studies, wage ranges for the six hours a child works, freedom of worship and communication with their loved ones,” she said,

She outlined the necessity of making amendments in the child act by looking at those major issues.

This will solidify the extension of social welfare in protecting children as they will have full back-up of the supportive law and protective structures in place.

Sadly, Annastazia is just another face lost in the multitudes of children subjected to an unfair system of exploitation.

What's even more disappointing is that some employers still placate themselves with the fact that they are not physically, verbally or emotionally abusive to these children

However, putting minors to work still puts them out of school and that in itself is breaking the law and denying them a basic right.

We need to be more vigilant as a community and avoid validating complacency that denies children their rights.

 

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original location.

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EYES ON TRAFFICKING

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.

ABOUT PBJ LEARNING

PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.