Recently 8-year-old domestic worker Zohra was tortured to death by her employer. Exposing another case of exploitation of domestic worker, Police arrested three women on charges of forcing a housemaid into prostitution, torturing her and shaving her head. Cases of brutality against domestic workers highlighted in every few months. Remember the cases we see in the mainstream media is only a tip of an iceberg, thousands of cases go unreported in our society.

Millions of women and girls are working as domestic helpers in Pakistan. Most of the domestic workers are making sacrifices to support their families. Instead of giving them respect, they deserve they are among the most exploited and abused workers. In domestic workers lower and middle age girls are most vulnerable who face physical and mental torture, sexual abuse, rape and even death.

If we talk about the employer or abuser it could be a male or female, adult or a child, from a middle-class family or high-class family, influential or a common man. What do these people have in common? cruelty and sick mentality.

Let’s dig out the core reasons for this brutality. First of all, people, who have enough money to afford a housekeeper they tend to get underage or adult girls from the villages because they think they can buy anything with money. They consider and deal with them as their slaves. Feudal mindset and patriarchy are the most common reason of violence but in this case psychology and mental health of the abuser also counts. The cruel actions of employers portray the sadistic tendencies and ill mental health. It has become common practice that people let their frustration and anger out to the nearest weaker person. We have seen many cases where one family member is beating the domestic worker brutally and other family members are watching or even recording it in mobile which shows the overall mental state of the society.

In society today, mental illness and violence are often seen as inextricably linked, creating a harsh stigma for people which have dire consequences. Violence has serious implications for society and people who are involve in it needs to be studied. We need to understand the factors contributing to violence so that we can appropriately develop a risk management plan. Addressing the factors and finding solutions can eliminate violence from the society.

The culture of sending children as domestic helpers in other cities become one of the most significant reasons for abuse because the victims have no contact with their families. Many face illegal confinement and torture for months and years until they escape dead or alive. The families of the victims are also culprit because most of the time they know that their children are facing violence and they never take action to get them out. Many of them remain silent because of fear because they get threats by the influential owner. Others remain quiet because they are getting paid and after knowing about the violence, they get hush money to remain silent. In many cases, the victim is physically and sexually abused by the employer but remain silent sometimes in fear and sometimes she also gets some benefits in exchange for it.

Most cases are not reported but if reported, most of the time culprit do not get punishment. Most of the time they work out an agreement with the victims’ families or they use loopholes of law to get free. Legal proceeding and affording high lawyer fee end up costing a lot to the poor families which is also a reason that they do not register the case or withdraw it.

We as a society are responsible for these kinds of incidence too. We do not take action and remain silent when we see any kind of violence in society. We do not condemn the people around us involved in violence and cruelty. We protest for a few weeks, now even for a few hours on social media making the trend #1 on twitter and questioning humanity and saying how can someone be so ruthless and cruel. But suddenly the hype dies down and we get back to our lives waiting for another incident to become a hero on social media through demanding justice for another victim.