Contract children of Switzerland

A few days ago, I was watching a documentary on BBC titled, “Switzerland: Stolen childhoods.” The documentary revealed that Switzerland, one of the richest countries of the world and a defender of human rights, has a shameful past in terms of child abuse. One may find it interesting to know that even in the 1950s and 1960s Switzerland had a poor economy. After the Second World War, in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, the children of divorced women or single parents were taken away forcefully by the state and sent to the countryside to some farming families in order to work in the farms. These children were called “contract children”.

BBC's interview with some of these contract children, who are now in their late sixties and seventies, disclosed how they were abused at their workplaces as they were forced to work under hard conditions and often faced severe punishment. Some said their foster parents often used to beat them up. Sometimes they even had to starve if they failed to work up to their parents' expectations. Even though their real parents were forced to live without them, they had to pay for their children's upkeep. Some of the victims are still suffering from mental trauma and fear that they will be looked down upon by others if their past is revealed.

Recently, the Swiss government has decided to compensate these contract children who were taken away from their parents against their will. But how can they compensate them? Can they give them back their childhood?

Nazmunnahar
Mirpur, Dhaka