A few days back, a nine-year-old girl Sompa Rani Das was trying to collect water in her vessels from Ramakrishna Mission, Motijheel. "What do you do?" I asked Sompa. What she said in reply was really heart-touching. "I have been serving as a domestic helper for three years and have to perform so many tasks -- washing clothes, sweeping floor, cooking, shopping, collecting water and many more household tasks. My employers are malicious and inhospitable. They torture me now and then and lock me inside the room while they go outside. I am allowed eat only when everyone completes their meal. Sometimes I have very little food to eat. I get up early and sleep late at night. I can not share anything with my master's kids as I speak in my regional dialect. I have nobody on this planet apart from my maternal grandmother as I lost my parents at an early age. My grandmother is sick and she is too poor to support me. She sent me here in Dhaka for supporting her monetarily," replied Sompa as tears rolled down her cheeks. Sompa informed me that she never had the opportunity of attending school. It seems that her struggle for survival began the very day she was born.
There are laws for the betterment and welfare of domestic helpers in our country; but no law can safeguard these poor children only because the laws are rarely implemented. We say our children as the future of the nation; but what future do the children like Shompa have? Laws should not remain in the books only; we want their strict enforcement. We need action-not words. Otherwise, there will be no end to the sufferings of Shompas.
Bipul K Debnath
A student of English Department
Dhaka College, Dhaka
Plights of a domestic helper
FE Team | Published: May 01, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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