In the film Heaven Without People, about a family in Beirut gathered at home for Easter lunch, the maid unobtrusively fills up water glasses around the dining table as banter flows among siblings.
She asks the woman of the house if she should bring out the dessert yet; makes countless trips from the kitchen to the dining table, bearing food and clearing dishes in an invisible manner that will be familiar to anyone who has lived in a house with domestic help. At one point in the film, a son-in-law hurls an accusation at the maid, yelling at her to go back to Sri Lanka. She corrects him: she's from Ethiopia.
That scene drifted to mind while reading a report from Beirut this week of 37 Ethiopian women, domestic workers all, thrown out by their former employers and forced to sleep on the street.
Abysmal as this is, the reality is also that this could be anywhere. Cruelty is never the exclusive preserve of any one region or people. Nor is racism the worst plight to befall domestic workers, who are often denied being called anything more dignified than servants.
In several urban cities, there are also separate elevators in apartment complexes for domestic staff – a form of class apartheid that has only been made worse in the pandemic
Across countries, economically advanced or not, there is similarity in the array of degrading treatment meted out to domestic workers who are often underage, vulnerable and abused in ways perpetuated for too long: a worrying number are underpaid, lack social security, are discriminated against and robbed of dignity.
In too many homes around the world, there are separate plates, glasses and teacups for the 'servants'.
In several urban cities, there are also separate elevators in apartment complexes for domestic staff – a form of class apartheid that has only been made worse in the pandemic, since new fears of catching the virus conveniently further ancient prejudices.
Last week, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a little girl, Zohra Shah, aged eight, died because she accidentally let some expensive parrots out of a cage. She had opened the cage to feed the birds. Her employers were so angry that they beat her unconscious and left her in a hospital, where she died from her injuries.
A line in the report carried in The National read: "Siddiqui [the employer] kicked the girl in her private parts and there were bruises on her entire body and she was bleeding."
To pit stories like what happened to Zohra against what the international community has agreed that every child deserves is an exercise in understanding how far we fall short when it comes to protecting children.
It shows how egregiously society can fail to watch over the "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family," as it says in the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. "The child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth".
On a routine basis across the world, we see households carry out subversions of these standards and make a parody of justice and what it means to treat another like human beings.
According to the International Labour Organisation, there are an estimated 152 million children engaged in physical labour. Seventy-two million of them are in hazardous work.
When it comes to how many people treat their domestic employees, the Indian subcontinent is not short on evidence. No laws apply to the unorganised sector of domestic workers. Dubious “maid placement agencies” are often in the news for trafficking girls from villages in poorer states and luring them to cities. Many families in villages frequently sell their children, often girls, to middlemen in the hope that they will earn money and send it back home to feed the rest of the family.
In 2012, a New Delhi couple, both doctors, locked their 13-year-old maid in their apartment and flew to Bangkok for a vacation. The girl was hired through an agency from the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. “Left her to starve” was the phrase used in some news reports. Other reports, aiming for balance, said she had access to eggs and Maggi noodles, as if that somehow absolves her employers.
The couple was arrested upon their return from Bangkok. They had been spending nights in mall car parks in order to avoid the police. Also arrested was the middleman from the agency.But around the world arrests are the exception rather than the norm in such cases.
In India, domestic workers have the added misery of not being backed by unions. They are routinely overworked, don't get a weekly off, are expected to be on call 18 hours a day and have no freedom. The deeply casteist and classist nature of the society in which they operate only exacerbates their degradation. There are numerous reports of abuse of underage domestic workers, in particular. A draft national policy on that could grant them rights, finally regulate the sector, ensure minimum wages and protect them from other forms of exploitation is still in its early stages.
But the data is opaque, and so it can be difficult to know where to begin. Tripti Lahiri, author of the book Maid in India: Stories of Inequality and Opportunity Inside Our Homes, has spoken about how, in her research efforts, it was difficult to find even basic data on the total number of domestic workers. Dated government figures and those from KPMG, an accounting firm, were completely different. India's 2011 national census estimated that 3.9 million people are employed as domestic workers by private households, and 2.6 million of them are women. The actual figures are anybody's guess.
Three days ago, we carried in these pages Kunal Purohit's piece that spoke of the invisibility of India's millions of migrant workers. "Their invisibility is best captured by the fact that in its eighth decade of being independent, the country is yet to have precise data around the number of the workers".
But even if there were data and laws to protect the rights of the millions of voiceless workers, not just in India or Pakistan or across the Middle East, a fundamental question remains. Who will hold up a mirror to the often-educated households who think those who treat their “help” cruelly are other people, aberrations, and then still insist on separate tea cups for their own, let's face it, servants?
Nivriti Butalia is an assistant comment editor at The National
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
Melville House
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
DMZ facts
- The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
- It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
- The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
- It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
- Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
- Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
- Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012.
- Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
Fitness problems in men's tennis
Andy Murray - hip
Novak Djokovic - elbow
Roger Federer - back
Stan Wawrinka - knee
Kei Nishikori - wrist
Marin Cilic - adductor
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Gulf Men's League final
Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
Itcan profile
Founders: Mansour Althani and Abdullah Althani
Based: Business Bay, with offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India
Sector: Technology, digital marketing and e-commerce
Size: 70 employees
Revenue: On track to make Dh100 million in revenue this year since its 2015 launch
Funding: Self-funded to date
The biog
Name: Ayisha Abdulrahman Gareb
Age: 57
From: Kalba
Occupation: Mukrema, though she washes bodies without charge
Favourite things to do: Visiting patients at the hospital and give them the support they need.
Role model: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation and President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma