What do you do when parents are disinterested???  

A 16-year-old girl Asha, came to work as a helper in our home. A very sweet natured, loving, affectionate girl. She is very petite in nature. She has her parents, a drunkard father, a hardworking mother who is stuck to her father because of the little property that she can keep for her children, a younger sister and a younger brother. Asha just failed her class 10 exams and plans to take up the exams again in March 2009. She's been with me for the past 6 months on and off and I've grown to love this girl.

You might be wondering why I took her. If she went elsewhere, they would use her completely. Here with us she is like a daughter to me and a younger sister to my sons. My mother too is fond of her, though she ticks her off when wrong. She helps us around the house, she does a lot. At the same time, I make sure she wakes up early and study in the morning. She does help me a lot in the day time, relaxes in the noon, has a shower and again I let her study in the evenings.

Her parents, though, are the biggest pain. She loves them, but they just keep taking her home every now and then, getting her to help there, like washing all their clothes, carrying water from a big distance (they don't have direct water supply at their home), clean up the place, etc.). Parents keep yelling at each other, father yells and beats her, etc. Where food is concerned, they give the children the best. But there is no peace of mind.

I don't have a right on this girl since she is on 16 years of age. If she were 18 years, I would have fought for her and given her a life. I'm stuck and its awful. Right now, her parents are planning to take her back. What will be her future with them? They'll get her married by the age of 18, she settle down, work as a maid in someone's house, go home to a drunken husband, have 2 or 3 children, and so it goes on, with the next generation. Lousy, isn't it?