Pakhi Noor, 9, and Meena, 8, were lucky to escape the brutal tortures and abuses by their employers but now, at the end of that ordeal, they face a new crisis: Taken from home at a very tender age, neither remembers where her family lives.

With nowhere to go, and with horrendous wounds still to be nursed, their stories illustrate the typical fate of poor girls forced into bondage at an early age in appallingly abusive conditions.

PAKHI IN FETTERS
The ordeal of Pakhi reached a tipping point after a simple mishap: She lost a set of keys. As punishment for the mistake, her employer, Mahmuda Binte Atique alias Ratna, beat her and then turned her out of the Moddhya Basabo house in Sabujbag.

"You can enter my house only after you find the keys," Ratna warned the 9-year-old kid before dumping her outside the gate, Pakhi recalled recently lying in a bed at DMCH.

Following complaints from neighbours, the police rescued Pakhi from in front of the gate and took her to DMCH. They then arrested and filed a case against Ratna under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. Ratna was sent to jail on May 11.

Doctors at DMCH said Pakhi's body is a demonstration of abuse. The numerous black spots on her hands, legs and back, they said, clearly indicate serious torture. "Her skin diseases also show that she lived in a very shabby condition and without any care at her employer's house," they added.

Bitterer are the lingering mental scars that do not show. Pakhi is so frightened of her employer, she screams in panic whenever anyone approaches her bed, saying, "No...no...I won't go...I won't go....to Ratna's house."

Worst of all, the child cannot remember the name of her home district and has no way to contact her parents. She could only say that she has four sisters, all of whom were forced to work as domestic helps in the city, while their jobless father and mother stay at their village home with her two younger brothers.

TRIALS OF MEENA
Not far from Pakhi's bed, Meena is living the same nightmare. The police admitted the 8-year-old domestic help to the hospital on May 8.

Neighbours told the police over telephone that her employer, Aleya Begum, and an elderly domestic help, Mosammat Nayan, tortured Meena at a house at Sutrapur.

"Aleya and Nayan both beat me up that day. I could not walk. Then the police rescued me from the house and brought me here," said the ruthlessly abused child.

Sutrapur police arrested Aleya and Nayan, filed a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act and then sent them to jail.

Meena's story highlights the many dangers faced by young girls sent into domestic work. Meena's family was so poor that her mother offered her a year ago to one of her aunts, Ayesha Begum, who lived at the city's Sayedabad.

But Meena got lost once when Ayesha sent her shopping and was unable to find her way back home. It was then that Nayan picked her up and took her to Aleya's house, where the abuses on her began.

Beatings were a routine in that house, Meena described. "Whenever Nayan was alone at home, she would compel me to work continuously and would hit me with hot rod if I made any mistake," she said, adding Aleya also beat her frequently.

Like Pakhi, Meena's recovery in the hospital is but the beginning of a new challenge to face. Meena does not know her home district and could only tell The Daily Star that she has three sisters and a brother.

"Tortured at so early an age, these girls have become very weak and mentally unbalanced," one of the physicians at DMCH One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) said. "I don't know what their fate will be after they are treated here, because none of their relatives has come to inquire after them," he added.

REFUGE FOUND
Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association took Pakhi to its Agargaon shelter home on Tuesday, while Sutrapur police took Meena to safe custody on Thursday. Sub-Inspector Abul Khair received her from the OCC.

Doctors at the OCC on Thursday said the two hapless children are now physically well. What they need now are shelter and care. Though they have recovered from the physical wounds, they face a tougher challenge now -- finding their way back to their home and family.