ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF CHILD LABOUR AND CHILD TORTURE

10-yr-old branded with hot spoon for not doing dishes



Panaji: A ten-year-old girl employed as a maid in a house at Porvorim in Goa has alleged that her employers would place a scorching hot flat steel spoon on her body for failing to wash utensils even when there was no utensils to wash. She would also be kicked on the stomach and beaten, she told cops.
For her “failures”, the minor, a native of Gadak, Hubli, wasn’t just punished but also allegedly regularly taunted by her employers, who would say, “tumara jaat hi aisa hai”. The girl belongs to a scheduled tribe.
Sources said the minor, who lost her father last year, has never been to school and was living with her grandparents in Goa, when a neighbour approached the grandmother seeking to place the minor as a domestic help at Pednekar’s residence. The girl was with the family for almost seven months and allegedly subjected to atrocities almost everyday.
Police have booked a case under IPC’s Prevention of Atrocities (SC/ST) Act, and Goa Children’s Act against her employer Audumber (Shubham) Pednekar, a civil engineer, his wife Minaxi and sister-inlaw Tina. While Audumber was arrested and later released on bail, Minaxi and Tina are absconding.
“She told us that at first the family was fine and she was asked to do all the house work. The torture started a month later, when Tina allegedly hit her with a wire for not cleaning the utensils.

out of indian times by Preetu Nair | TNN