ARJUN POUDEL
Who could be happier than children when it comes to festivity! But 11-year-old Aakriti Poudel actually prays that for the end of the festivals of Dashain and Tihar. The domestic help in the capital knows very well that she will be toiling harder this Dashain, so that the members of her master´s family can enjoy the festival. So she will slog all through the festive season just two meals a day - and nothing else, not even a paltry wage.

Life has been so cruel to her that this child from a village close to Pokhara cannot even look forward to a reunion with her family -forget about merriment. She was a toddler when her mother died. Her father could not come to terms with the tragedy and lost his mental equilibrium. Other relatives then simply shied away. Raised by her neighbors for some time, she was soon handed over to a well-off family in Kathmandu, looking for domestic help. She was only nine years old then.

After slogging for three years, the only thing she could wish for is to return -at least for the festival-- to the house of a friend, whose family sheltered her after her mother died. But her master won´t let her go. “They say that I should not return to my village for Dashain and Tihar, as I don´t have anyone at home,” Aakriti says with tearful eyes. “It hurts me so much. I can endure everything here but not these festivals." She said that she has to suffer a lot at the festivals, as a lot of things get cooked and a lot of people visit the house. "I have to wash piles of utensils, clothes, clean the entire house all through the festivals," she adds.
And there is no respite for her once the festive seasons are over.  I have to finish all household chores before going to school," she complains. “If I can´t act fast or if they have additional work I have to sacrifice my classes." She is a fifth-grader at Panchakanya Lower Secondary School at Baluwatar, where she gets free education sponsored by the state. 

Now, meet Ramesh Khadka, 12, of Rupendehi. He complains that his master did not allow him to return home for the Dashain - even though his father had come to take the child back to the village for the festival. "They gave some money to my father and sent him back," he said in a choked voice. For him, too, the festive season is as good as a nightmare. "I have to serve not only my master´s family but also their relatives," he whines.  What has embittered his heart the most is that his master and mistress take him around to their relatives´ places to receive the tika so that they can brag about maintaining domestic help.
“They take pride in telling others, in my presence, that they have servants at home," he said.  He said that he is then asked to work at their relatives´ places. “My parents have compulsions. Due to their poor financial condition, I have been suffering a lot," he adds. And the list of such miserable children goes on. 

Kamal Bohara´s uncle, Deependra, has been frantically wandering in the streets of the capital for the past couple of days in search of his nephew. He says that his 13-year-old nephew has not returned home, to Mahendranagar municipality- 13, for the last three years and his parents and grandparents are too eager to see him. "His grandparents have been waiting for him back home. They sent me to bring him at any cost," he says. “But I just can´t spot the exact location of the home, where my nephew has been working and his master hung up on me when I told them I have come to pick him up.” Left with no choice, he has now approached several organizations working for the welfare of domestic help to rescue his nephew. 

Hundreds of children serving as domestic help in the capital are not allowed to go home for the festivals for all the obvious reasons. Child rights activists say that small domestic children suffer even more during the festive seasons. “These children are forced to work harder during the festivals," says Pradeep Dongol, a child rights officer at Children and Women in Social Service and Human Rights (CWISH).

These underage domestic helps, especially the girls, are also vulnerable to sexual abuse, especially from the relatives during the festivals, he warns. Some people do not let the children go to their homes on the pretext that their parents are poor. "Everyone celebrates festivals as per their capacity and festivals matter to small children more than the adults," he adds. According to Dongol, a new trend has also developed among so-called sophisticated families of the capital of going abroad or to tourist destinations during the festive seasons. "They go abroad or Pokhara, Sauraha, Lumbini with their families and leave minor domestic helps alone in the house," he said. He said that domestic help has to be confined in a small room or under the staircase for the whole day as they padlocked all other rooms when they go out. “They are even deprived of adequate food during the festivals," he adds.

Due to the abject poverty of their family, hundreds of children mostly from the countryside adjoining the capital, and also from across the country, have been slogging as domestic helps in the capital valley. Several studies have divulged that most of such children have been denied even their basic rights.

Published on: 10 October 2013 | Republica