Creeping towards disability....
Fatima's backbone is broken from torture by housemaster
Our Correspondent, Barisal
Everybody looks on with a sigh when eleven year-old Fatima stoops while moving at the hospital. The pretty poor girl dreams of having a normal life but doctors and nurses know she will be crippled for life. She is at the Barisal Shere Bangla Medical College Hospital (BSBMCH) for more than a year for treatment of her backbone, broken due to torture by her employer. She worked as a domestic help at the house of Hedayet Howlader at Nayapaltan area in Dhaka city. Doctors at the hospital say her backbone has been broken and she will be crippled. She will never be able to stand straight. There will no treatment in Bangladesh because it has been delayed. Her broken backbone could be straightened through treatment and operation if she was brought to hospital within two months of the incident, they said. It was too late when she was brought to the hospital, they said. She will have to stay at the hospital till formation of the bone marrow inside the broken backbone is complete. This may take another one year or more. After that she will bend permanently and be crippled for life, they regretted. She will have to stoop while moving. Fatima is quite familiar at the hospital. Most of the time, she stays alone. Her mother comes to see her at times. Fatima is the daughter of day laborer Matiar Bepari of Char Baleswar village in Zianagor upazila in Pirojpur district. Matiar had hard days to maintain his family of five with three children. So Fatima was sent to Dhaka at the age of 9 to work as a domestic help in the house of Hedayet Howlader. Talking to this correspondent, she said she was often tortured by Hedayet and his wife Baby. They used to lock her inside when they would go out. One day Fatima was severely tortured and sent back to her parents in Pirojpur. This was in July last year. Her condition was critical but her parents did not know that her backbone was broken. Her mother Lalvanu contacted with Hedayet and asked him why her daughter was tortured. She also sought financial help for her treatment. "But they misbehaved with my mother and threatened her not to lodge any complaint about this", Fatima said. Injured Fatima was admitted at Pirojpur hospital. She was sent to BSBMCH after two months for better treatment. But it was late. Fatima's parents have no ability to bear the expenses of better treatment in Dhaka or abroad.
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