Maids still vulnerable

JAKARTA: Sutinah’s chores start early and end late, day in and day out. The 18-year-old from the Central Java town of Purwodadi is a housemaid for a working couple with three children aged five, three and one. She wakes at 4am to prepare breakfast, do the laundry and clean the house. When the children awake, she helps bathe them.  

“After preparing breakfast for the children, I carry the youngest around, singing him Javanese lullabies until he sleeps. Then, I help the children’s grandmother bathe and prepare her breakfast.”