How often have I seen well to do families going to posh restaurants for late night dinners, most of these are accompanied by teenage girls, who are short, dark, wearing loose , ill fitting handed down clothes. These girls do not match the beauty and status of other family members, and we guess naturally that these girls with sullen faces and list less eyes are so called maids or governesses to the cute and cuddly child belonging to the family.These girls are made to sit out side the restaurant, while the family enjoys a luxurious meal in air conditioned surroundings. Sometimes they keep the child with them, sometimes they hand over the child to the maid so that they can eat in peace. Now we can very well imagine the pathetic state of the maid, who might be feeling cold or hot as per the season, she is all alone, unescorted and unsafe. So many times I have observed loitering men passing crude remarks at the girl, some even trying to touch her or pinch her. The tongue tied, scared girl recoils into herself. I want to ask every one, would we expose our daughter or sister to such plight? The maid might be hungry, she would have to wait till she reaches home after mid night and have a paltry meal.
When it comes to our daughter, we will not even send her across the road to get bread or fruits, for we fear her safety, but we can send a 14-20 yrs old maid to buy things as late as 9 in the evening.
Then we complaint that maids these days are not trustworthy.How can we expect trust when we do not trust them over one or two rupees.Isn't it ironical that we trust our household and kids to the maids but do not trust her intentions. It is good to be careful but we should know it better as to how much the limit should be stretched.
We do not even scold our young ones at home, but would not mind slapping the maid for any petty issue.We do not realise now that we are responsible for building a dissatisfied, violent society around us.It is no wonder that incidents of maids abducting kids, attacking their mistresses, robbing their employers are on the rise.
It is time we respected human beings. Even if we cannot treat our maids as equals, we should at least stop exposing them to harassment and violence. They are an important component of our house hold, it is because of them that women can freely work while their homes and kids are taken care of. Would it matter much if we could shell out a few extra rupees to buy them decent clothing?
They are entitled to a decent, respectable life, and it is our joint responsibility to give them love
and care in lieu of all they are doing to keep our lives hassle free.
We must try to educate them,
nurture them for they too are
somebody's daughters.
It's our collective responsibility to let these womenfolk live safely with their dignity intact.
3 comments:
very thoughtful post,the issue of little maid girls u hv put forward is very true state in metros.they r also daughters of someone like our daughters,its realy time we woke up.nice article.
thank u Mehek for being here on my blog.There r so many trivial isues that need to be addressed.so it is only natural that sensitive people like and me shud start this at the earliest.
very valid points raised to express concern about pathetic treatment meted out to young girls who look after young ones of the family
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