Hello Friends, Good Morning/Evening.
Today I attended a learning session meeting at CSIM. Sister Lissy Joseph, the co-ordinator for National Domestic Workers Movement, gave the presentation. It was very horrible to listen to the attrocities done on the domestic workers and the plight of them. It stirred lot of feelings in me. I do not want to say or explain who Sister Lissy Joseph is but I wish to explain her inspiration to took up this cause of the domestic workers. One day Sister Lissy Joseph was walking through a road and she found 3 children of ages 6, 4 and 2. The 6 yr old kid was giving bath to the 2 yr old kid holding the hair tightly and using soap on the face and the kid is crying pathetically. When the sister approached them asking about their parents, the girl replied that her father is a rickshaw puller and her mother is a servant maid and the mother, father leaves the home at 6 am in the morning and return almost at 9 pm. The 6 yr old kid has to look after the house and the other two kids. Later Sister Joseph visited them again and spoke with their mother and she told that she gets Rs. 800 only if she works all the day in 6 houses. Out of which she has to pay Rs. 150 as rent, Rs. 100 as water bill and Rs. 100 as electricity. What remains for them for food? Her husband is a drunkard. He hardly gives any money to the family. That is when that she decided to take up this cause. Rest is history. Ofcourse it is not so easy. I wish all of us has the privilege to listen to these things through her directly. Now she is successful in bringing about a G.O. for them. The coming May 1st CM is going to announce it and in DD Saptagiri Channel from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm there is a programme on their efforts. I hope I can write about all that I listened to. But as I said the meeting stirred a hell lot of emotions in me. I wish to share them with you all. Not in a mood to pen them all now. How and in which way we can help them that also I will write to you. P.S.: My mother feared a lot and she has been thinking about it even without sleeping. She comes to me and says 'Don't do that. Even if we agree, the others will scold you saying that you are the person who explained her all these things'. Even my father too supported her saying 'Don't do such things baby. We are helping Leela (our maid) our level best. We are looking her good. Why go beyond that?' I responded to them saying 'I can answer them. If they scold me, let them scold. I don't bother'. May be the inspiration given by Sister Lissy Joseph or the confidence that what I am doing is a just thing. Thank you. with regards, PRASANTHI.
