Feb 12th, 2009

New Delhi, Feb. 10: Battered and bruised, Priya would probably have still been sleeping in the bathroom had her employer not hit her on the head.

The blow ended her bondage, 11 months after the girl from Bengal had travelled nearly 2,000km for a better future.

The 15-year-old was last week rescued by officials of a child rights group after passers-by saw her crying in the balcony of the west Delhi house where she worked as a maid and alerted police.

Priya had started working in the Paschim Vihar house last March after an aunt brought her to Delhi from South Dinajpur. The beatings started soon.

“I did all the work. I cooked, cleaned and washed their clothes. I also took care of their two children. I don’t know what I did to them for treating me like this,” Priya said, a catch in her throat.

“Bhabhi stood behind me with a stick when I washed the utensils or chopped vegetables. She hit me every time I slowed down,” she mumbled, recalling the daily torture she suffered at the hands of the woman of the house.

Even after work, there was no respite. Priya said her employers made her sleep in the bathroom every day.

But unknown to the traumatised teenager, her ordeal was drawing to a close.

On February 3, as she worked, her employer stood behind her, stick in hand. Bruised from earlier beatings, Priya wasn’t as quick as other days. “Bhabhi hit me on the head and I started bleeding. Still, she wouldn’t let me go. I couldn’t move because of the pain. My body ached as she made me sleep in the bathroom every day in wet clothes.

“Then she left the kitchen, and I ran to the balcony. Some people saw me and complained to the police. Bhabhi dragged me inside and started beating me again. She said if I didn’t keep shut, she would send me and my family to jail.”

Rescued by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Priya now stays with the aunt who brought her to Delhi. “My father wanted to come and take me home, I refused,” said Priya, whose Rs 1,500 salary helped supplement the family’s earnings back home.

No work also means she can no longer pay for her siblings’ education, tough to sustain for a poor farmer.

Priya’s employer Jagpreet Singh refused to comment on the allegations.

Bachpan Bachao official Umesh Gupta said the police hadn’t yet registered a complaint. “The girl is being treated in a city hospital. We have written to the Delhi Commission for Women urging severe steps against Singh,” Gupta added.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090212/jsp/nation/story_10521297.jsp