Probably in a first of its kind of judgment, a Delhi court has directed two women employers of posh Vasant Kunj to pay ₹2.17 lakh as wages and fine to a nine-year-old female child labourer for engaging her for babysitting a male child without any remuneration.
The child had been working for four years at their home in the upmarket colony before she was rescued in a joint operation by non-government organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the Vasant Kunj police on October 30, 2017.
According to the statement recorded before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by the child’s mother, the employers had given the child the job of taking care of the male child.
“She has been working at the house of the appellants [employers] for the past four years and her daughter was also working with her. The child used to take care of three-year-old male kid Harjish,” the mother said.
Daily chores
“She used to change clothes of Harjish, arrange table and would go to the park to play with him. She also used to lay the table for the two women, stay at their house between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and was not given any salary,” she further said.
The child in her statement recorded before a Metropolitan Magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC on a direction of the Child Welfare Committee said, “She was staying at the house of the appellants [employers], used to take out tiffin boxes from the school bags of the children and ask for tea and water to the guests.”
“She [the worker] did not receive any money. Her mother had asked her to do the work for some time. She did not do any dusting job and other household work. She used to get food in the morning and evening,” she further said.
The CWC had given ₹5,24,116 to the child — ₹4,74,116 as wages for four years from October, 2013 to October, 2017 at the rate of ₹8,000 per month and ₹50,000 as fine for loss of childhood and atrocities on her by the employers on the basis of the statements by the child and her mother.
Women refute charges
The employers in their appeal against the Welfare Committee order submitted before the court that the child never worked at their house.
The NGO had abducted the child from their house and produced her before the committee.
Her mother had started bringing her daughter to their home as they had permitted her for it on her request because she was not comfortable in leaving her daughter in the area where they stayed, the employers further said.
Penalty order modified
Observing that the committee has erred in assessing the monthly income of the child, Additional Sessions Judge N.K. Malhotra at the Patiala House courts modified the Committee’s order and directed the employers to pay ₹2.17 lakh to the child — ₹1.92 lakh as wages at the rate of ₹4,000 per month for the job done between October, 2013 and October, 2017 and and ₹25,000 as fine for loss of her childhood.
