Teenage maid tortured, made to drink urine

Teenage maid tortured, made to drink urine

NEW DELHI - A teenage Indian maid rescued last week with horrific injuries has alleged her employer forced her to drink urine, kept her naked in the bathroom and burnt her with a frying pan, reports said.

The young woman was speaking to the media on Friday after being rescued by police from a home in an upscale New Delhi neighbourhood following complaints by neighbours. Police say the teenager had been tortured by her employer, a 50-year-old Indian woman working for a French multinational.

"(My employer) forced me to drink urine, kept me naked in the bathroom and would singe me with a frying pan and hit me with a broom," the maid told The Hindustan Times newspaper.

"She would laugh after beating me," the girl alleged.

The girl also alleged her nails were pulled out and a piece of paper on which she had written down the telephone numbers of her relatives had been torn up, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.

After her rescue last week, social rights campaigners said she had been slashed with knives and mauled by dogs.

The girl's account has focused the spotlight on abuse of domestic servants, including children. The employees are sometimes trafficked from remote and poverty-stricken Indian states to urban centres and toil for long hours in homes for little or no pay.

The teenager, who was initially reported to be 15 but is around 18 according to police, spoke to journalists in hospital where she is recovering from multiple injuries, including a deep gash on her head.

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