Agonies of girl domestic workers (GDWs) migrated from rural areas to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

This article was aimed to explore the agonies that girl domestic workers experienced at the hands of traffickers and employers in Addis Ababa city. Qualitative research approach was employed to generate robust data meant for the study purposes. Snowball sampling technique was used to pursue girls through the network of their peers until the data saturates. In-depth interviews were conducted with girls and their guardians while key informant interviews were held with child experts. The study posits that girls were enticed to join the domestic workforce with the hope to eke-out their impoverished family’s livelihood. Recruitment process of rural girls for urban domestic work has mysteriously been perpetrated by the chained network of traffickers, parents, employers, and peers with adaptive mundus operandi to the informality of the process. There has also been a circumstance whereby girls were bonded with their parents’ debit particularly when recruited through acquaintance networks and as a result, denied appropriate privileges for their domestic services. It is established that employers manifested distorted perception of domestic servitude towards GDW and hence were punitive. The study further unveiled that GDWs were restricted from the public gaze and as a result experienced exploitative working conditions and sexual abuse. The study implies absence of a protective system that safeguards girls from power asymmetry with employers and thus, strongly recommends for the policy and legislative framework that ameliorates child DW.