No one has the right to mistreat maids

ON ABUSE OF DOMESTIC HELP

 

From My News – Home

MY PAPER THURSDAY JULY 10, 2008

 

DARYLL NANAYAKARA

 

OVER lunch a couple of days back, a group of friends and I were engaged in a conversation about maid abuse.

 

The topic came about after we had read several reports in local newspapers of how some employers had abused their maids.

 

One of them started recounting how she had heard of a particular abuse case.

 

It involved the maid being given one slice of bread per meal and being made to stand and face the wall each time she had allegedly made a mistake.

 

The maid was eventually found dead at the foot of a block in a tragic end to her apparent escape bid. She had attempted to climb down three storeys from her employer’s HDB unit in Woodlands with the aid of five towels that were strung together.

 

The 33-year-old maid had probably come here in search of a brighter future, as with many other domestic helpers.

 

Many of them make the sacrifice of leaving their families behind to earn money in foreign lands, just so that their families back home can have a better life.

 

For some maids, their journey overseas goes without a hitch. They get sent to work with great families who treat them well.

 

But for others, that same journey ends with them being overworked, subjected to humiliating treatment and, in extreme cases, in death.

 

It is a sad reality that the abuse of another human being exists even in a developed country like Singapore.

 

Our domestic helpers deserve to work free from abuse in a safe environment, simply because it is basic courtesy to treat another human being well.

 

According to a recent report in The Sunday Times, the Indonesian embassy here receives almost 70 calls a day from domestic helpers in need of help. An organization that runs shelters for abused maids sees about 100 new cases of abuse each month.

 

The numbers are telling and reflect a sad state of affairs between some employers and their domestic helpers.

 

I’m also sure there are many more instances of abuse that go unreported. Perhaps some maids choose to suffer in silence. What goes on behind closed doors, we will never really know.

 

A flip through a week’s worth of papers revealed two stories on the topic – in one, a maid is accusing her employer of scalding her with hot water, while in the other, a woman has been charged for setting her shih-tzu on her maid, which bit the maid’s thigh and finger.

 

It is beyond my imagination how anyone can bring themselves to inflict such pain and trauma upon someone else.

 

Domestic helpers are after all human beings, just like you and me. They may be here to work, but we must realise that they also have feelings.

 

Every slap on the face and every burn on the back would cause the same amount of pain to a domestic helper as to any other human being.

 

Employers must realise that hiring a maid does not come along with a licence to abuse them physically or verbally.

 

I understand that domestic helpers sometimes make mistakes – maybe the floor wasn’t mopped thoroughly or the clothes were not properly ironed.

 

But no matter how bad the mistake or how frustrated the employer is, no one has the right to mistreat or assault their maid.

 

Every instance of abuse is a dent on our image of a gracious society.

 

More importantly, every abused maid tells a tale of a complete disregard for human dignity.

 

myp@sph.com.sg