Housing society can be punished for not reporting actress's maid

Law states residents of Royal Classic Society who knew TV star employed minor girl share blame for the crime

Is TV actress Urvashi Dhanorkar the only person responsible for the brutal violence inflicted on her 10-year-old maid?

Even though society members came to the victim's rescue on Friday, state guidelines suggest that the Royal Classic Society in Andheri shares responsibility for Rameshwari Jadhav's ordeal.

Inform the cops

According to the model by-laws of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Societies Act introduced this year, the society must immediately inform the police if a flat owner employs a minor.

"It is the collective responsibility of the entire housing society to ensure that child labour does not take place.
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Clause 161 (c) of the by-laws states that those guilty can face imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of Rs 20,000 under the Child Labour Act of 1986.

Moreover, it is the society's responsibility to warn their members against hiring child labourers by placing a prominent note on the notice board," said Mahindra Kalyankar, joint registrar for housing societies in Mumbai.

While the society cannot be the law-enforcing authority and the guilty can choose to ignore the violation, Kalyankar added that the labour commission would be free to act as they saw fit.

In Jadhav's case, the building secretary was informed on Friday that Dhanorkar was allegedly beating up her maid for the last few days. The girl, however, had been working at the actress's home for four months.

Society wakes up

Since the incident, society members have now decided to strike hard on erring members. Society chairperson Indu Bhosale said they had learnt their lesson.

"A warning has been issued to all society members that they are not to employ any minors and anyone found in violation of the same would beu00a0 penalised immediately," she said.

Advocate Vinod Sampat, however, added that the piece of social legislation was unfortunately ignored in the city.
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"There's little physical monitoring, as child labour in societies is rampant and members do not want to antagonise others by reporting violations," he said.