Physical Abuse of Domestic Child Labor

I’ve written about this before, elsewhere. One of the most horrifying and repetitive moments during my time in PP was watching the young (maybe 15?) woman who worked as the sole domestic servant for the wealthy next-door neighbors in their 3-story villa. She worked nonstop from 5:30 AM until long after her bosses were asleep. The only time she got to herself on an average day was when they were eating. During those short moments, she would take her own plastic stool and go sit just inside the metal gate, and stare through the small hole (for a hand to enter and unlock the padlock) and watch the world outside. It was her only contact with that world. The Mirror re-reports an article on the subject of physical abuse (often called ‘educating’) of young domestic servants in Cambodia.

The problem of children in Cambodia is a major problem that deserves public attention. Many organizations conducted their studies on related problems, such as the exploitation of child labor, the rape of street children, and other problems affecting children. Few organizations conducted studies on the punishments imposed on domestic child laborers, and no organization had done any detailed study on this subject, even though they realized that punishments were improper and an important topic that needs attention.

“There are two kinds of child punishment. The first kind is physical punishment: beating children by hand or using other objects, kicking them, pulling their hair, forcing them to live in an unsafe place, making them work too much, and inflicting burns or threatening them. The second kind is making children embarrassed or degrading them, such as mistreating them with contempt, or moral abuse, isolating them, or not taking care of them.

“The most worrying factor is punishment that Cambodian people use as a way to educate and discipline their children in their families, claiming that it is a good and correct way, and it is also usual, because they do not consider the impact of punishment imposed on children. On the other hand, a number of organizations’ research shows some similarities and differences about the punishments imposed on children.