Domestic workers’ abuse

Ballason Gloria Mabeiam

Five year old Tehsa (not her real names) was taken to the Federal Capital Territory to work as a Domestic help. Tehsa was burdened with far too much than her small age and frame could take. Doing the dishes, washing baby clothes, sweeping and fetching water were on her list. The six-month old baby was hers to baby sit. The lineup of chores was often accompanied with beating at the slightest provocation. Tehsa’s day ends a little before midnight and begins at 5am.

When her employers leave the house, they lock her inside the house and deprive her any contacts with people. One day, her father visited. She tried to tell her father of her sufferings but he scrowled back at her and reminded her of all the great women she watched in the television and how she needed to persevere to someday be like them. Many months after, Tehsa’s fate has been worsened by the constant sexual violations she suffers from her mistress’s husband and his two sons. With no one to report to, Tehsa wants out but cannot find her way home.

Domestic Helps are a common feature in many big cities. Many people leave the villages and offer their services in houses of the upward mobile with the hope that such humble beginnings will serve as launch pad to better life and living. They clean, cook, take care of children and perform several other menial tasks for their employers. Some who have been lucky to meet kind employers have had their lives transformed by this arrangement; thousands of others have been exploited and abused. Statistics show that an estimated 53million people are domestic workers serving in homes and private organizations around the world. They often work 12-18hours a day for stipends that are far beyond the minimal wage.
There is also another group of domestic workers who are taken to foreign countries by the families they worked for in their home countries. This arrangement is deemed elitist and welcome especially in Nigeria where travelling abroad is viewed as a magic wand to overcoming economic challenges. The realities are however far from the dream. Most migrant workers go without wages. They are deprived of education and self-actualization. They are simply housed in conditions that are sometimes far from human; their feeding is regarded as their wages.

As a ploy to reduce immigration, the UK fused domestic workers’ visas to their employers. What that means is that the Domestic Worker, for the purpose of the Visa is an appendage of the Employer. He cannot change employer even in abusive circumstances. Running away is a dim option because they are undocumented immigrants and in most cases, their documents are confiscated by their employers. The painful groans and whelping cries of such workers are hence behind closed doors and in the midnight hour. The policy has led to the unintended consequence of re-enacting modern day slavery.
In Nigeria, as is the case in other African countries, the girl child is vulnerable. Abuse of the girl child is rife and rooted in tradition. The male child is allowed to play games and watch television while his female counterpart struggles with house chores and assignments. The outlook has unwittingly permeated of a girl child whose strength and value is in burden bearing. The depiction of the strength of the African woman is of one backing a baby and hauling firewood.

Outside the traditional setting, hundreds of girls are picked from villages and converted to work tools and objects of sexual gratification. Those who are flown outside the country’s shores are made pawns in human trafficking. With these unsavoury incidences, and given the fact that most homes with working class mothers run on the anchor of Domestic Workers, should the regime of Domestic Helps be abolished?
Much of the abuses on Domestic Helps occur because both employers and the domestic employees are not aware that there are inherent rights that need to be respected. There are also long-held perceptions that need to be challenged. The coinage ‘Domestic Help’ erroneously lends itself to the interpretation that there is a segment of people who by their circumstance of birth or status belong to the cadre of those who should serve the ‘Higher ranking humans’; nothing could be further from the truth.
Every human is born free. We are all born to enjoy the inalienable and indissoluble rights that make us human. The Domestic worker’s job may be unskilled but his essence cannot be challenged. Viewing her as a beast of burden rather than a worker with rights under the International Labour Conventions is an error. In June 2011, the Domestic Workers Convention was adopted as the first global standards for the protection of domestic workers.

The Convention was widely adopted for the advancement against forced labour, the compensation of victims and in order to address contemporary abuses of immigrant workers and private sector workers. Extreme cases of abuse need to be treated for what they are-Human Rights Violations. While the engagement of juveniles for labour must be addressed as child labour and an affront on the Child Rights Act.
Back home in Nigeria, parents in rural communities need to free their thoughts from the obsessive entanglements of finding quick passports to the future they seek for their children or wards. Life is a journey and not a short dash. The nature and frequency of abuse on domestic workers do not equate with the dream life. It is therefore a better and a more viable option for children to go through the conventional stages of growth, acquiring education and finding a choice employment.

Neighbours need to perform their civic responsibilities by reporting incidences of Domestic Workers abuse in their neighbourhood. Government agencies like the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons need to increase awareness through the media and acquire intelligence skills and people response strategies that enables them stem the growing trend of abuses of Domestic Workers. Ultimately, people need to realize that all humans are just that-human, and no less. When we accept the worth of our humanity, it becomes difficult to treat domestic Workers any less.