Domestic Helpers: The malady for a remedy

KOHIMA, JULY 23 : With various attributions such as ‘domestic helper’ or ‘baby sitter’ many children in Nagaland have been employed and are being exploited in the homes of the elite in the urban areas, depriving them of their childhood.

There have been reports of instances that these employed children were being abused in various forms by their employers. The children come from low economic backgrounds and often suffer silently bearing the brunt of abuse to earn just a few thousands for their families back home.

Often too, it is all in the objective to find ‘education’ as promised by their employers in most cases when they were first brought into domestic employment.
Child labor is an issue that people do not want to talk about much, but it is an issue that has been silently and slowly turning into a major cause for concern. It is understood that employing children below the age of 14 years, in any economic occupation, had been increasing during the past few years.

According to Subonenba Longkumer, the director of Community Educational Centre Society (CECS), the supply sector has changed from illegal migrants to local children from other districts especially from the interior villages during the past few years. The overwhelming demand for household help has resulted in increased cases of child trafficking, he said.

The activist said that the growing number of working women in the recent years has given rise to the need for cheaper labor to assist in household work, and also care for children in the absence of parents. A visit to some government schools in Kohima town threw light on the domestic help sector in the state: 70% of enrolled students were found to be employed as domestic workers, brought from Tuensang, Mon and other eastern regions of Nagaland. They are mostly between the ages 6-14 years. They were either brought by their parents themselves or by relatives to work for the employers in ‘exchange of help in securing ‘good education’ for them.

Teachers have also complained that this group of children i.e., the domestic workers, showed the lowest in attendance. They often come to school without doing their homework too, the teachers said. Another complaint was that the guardians of the children in concern never turn up when called for parent-teachers meetings or events, to discuss their wards’ attendance or performance in the school.

When inquired of the reasons for their irregular presence in school, it emerged that most of the time the children were prevented from attending school by their employers; they were burdened with work and the needed to look after their employers’ children.

That slant itself was an indication that their opportunity at education had become secondary.

A research and documentation officer of the CECS, Ameli Sema, told the Eastern Mirror earlier that the children are brought to towns with the promise of being given education. In return, they ‘help out’ with household and domestic errands after school.

Sema said that a large number of children, who have been brought into the towns, were promised education. This aspect of the issue also highlighted their desperate need for education, an ambition that would more than often go unfulfilled were they still in the far flung regions.

Sema expressed concern that child trafficking was taking a more drastic turn since the past few years and that it had now become a lucrative trade for ‘traffickers’ who are usually people known to the children’s families in the village and have contacts in the town.

The price and the cost

Middlemen are said to charge a sum of Rs. 3, 000-3, 500 per child and after deducting a large amount for fares, the parents are paid Rs 1000 at the most.

Sema also said that the number of child labor in the cases of urban areas such as Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung were rising; the demand for the young laborers is growing every day.

When queried about how the church views the issue, and whether or not initiatives were being taken by the institution, Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho, the general secretary of Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) made it clear that there was a fine line between children learning skills or trade, and children as being engaged as domestic workers in homes and even in agricultural sectors as cheap and convenient laborers.

The latter, he said, was exploitation and violation of children’s basic rights.

‘This is what the church is against because in many situations and instances, the children (have) no choice and children below 16-18 years cannot make an independent choice and they become the victims of those who are considered as responsible,’ said Dr Keyho.

The NBCC leader also said that the church was aware of the ‘silent’ but growing issue and had been involved in raising its voice against the practice of child labor.

The NBCC, he said, was in the process of framing out a policy statement on this very issue, which will define the position of the church.

At the same time, he said, it will continue its work in raising awareness in whatever ways it can do ‘so that the ugly face of abuse and manipulation will not turn uglier.’

The president of the Eastern Nagaland Women Organization Berila also told the Eastern Mirror that child labor continues to be one of the major areas of concerns for them as mothers. Various measures have been taken to address it but to no avail till date, she said.

The women leader also said that ‘awareness’ in various forms have been ‘disseminated’ among various tribal women leaders. However, she said, it was not checking the problem, as according to her, many ‘children are being trafficked by the parents themselves, without the knowledge of the women leaders.’

Narrating instances when children suffered at the hands of their employers, Berila said that the women organization was coming up with stricter punitive measures as a check. In this regard, she informed that a meeting would be held very soon with various tribal leaders solely to discuss child labor and their use as domestic helpers and associated concerns. The activist Sema has opined that the traditional view of the Naga people needs to be changed; the concept of child labor is completely foreign to their way of thinking, she said. The people need to be educated about responsibility and rights that come with employing children in their homes with the promise of providing basic needs and education; also the trust that had been placed upon them when the children came under their guardianship.

Although the state’s government and nongovernmental organizations are contributing their efforts as part of fighting child labor, she said, the greater need is for permanent abolition of child labor.

In progressive countries such as the United States, there are state agencies such as child protective services that safeguard the children rights and protection stringently.

If the Nagaland government can come up with something similar perhaps the dream of child labor being abolished will become a reality in the not too distant future.