The police in Maharashtra's Palghar district have registered a case against a woman for allegedly forcing a 10-year-old tribal girl into bonded domestic labour, an official said on Thursday.
The girl, a resident of Wada taluka, belongs to the tribal Katkari community. She was in the care of her grandparents after her father's death, as her mother had abandoned her.
In her complaint to the police on Wednesday, the girl's paternal grandmother said that a woman from Bhayander took the minor with her during last year's Ganesh festival.
'The woman forced my granddaughter to wash clothes and dishes, wipe floors, and dry and collect fish. She also abused and beat her,' the grandmother said in her police complaint.
The abuse allegedly continued even after the girl returned home in June 2025. The woman allegedly sent an advance of Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 'to take her back to work'.
The woman on Wednesday allegedly tried to take the child to work at her place. When her grandmother objected, she allegedly threatened to file a police complaint over the money she had already paid.
The woman has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections concerning unlawful compulsory labour, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the official added.