Brutality in child domestic labour is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Brutality in child domestic labour is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. During 2011 and 2013, 41 cases of brutality in child domestic labour reportedly took place in Pakistan, of which 19 children died due to severe injuries. Last year there was similar hype in the media when a doctor in Peshawar punished a 13-year-old domestic worker by burning her buttocks with a hot iron and cutting her long hair. In another case, 10-year-old Rubab was brutally tortured at the house of a government official and a first information report was lodged. The case of little Iram’s death was far more horrific; she was murdered over alleged theft of Rs30,000 from the family.
In current times, child labour is one crime but more important questions regarding who trafficked Tayyaba to the judge’s house, what was their relationship with the judge’s family, and how many more girls like Tayyaba are serving as modern day slaves can bring surprising facts to the limelight. Children are employed by almost every well-to-do family in the city and their employment is justified with the provision of enough food, clothing and money, which is actually an insult to human dignity. Child domestic labour needs to be impeded. It requires addressing the loopholes in the existing laws and legal system that provide room for exploitation of the weaker segment of the society.
The right to free and compulsory education law, if implemented, could have been very effective in curbing child domestic labour as it makes it mandatory for children between ages five and 16 to be enrolled in schools. It could also support in establishing the monitoring system of child domestic workers above 14 years of age.
Similarly, the corporal punishment bill, although passed by the National Assembly, has not been effective as corporal punishment in the home setting was excluded from the bill and this has left space to justify any kind of such incidence. In addition, the civil society’s demand for enlisting child domestic labour under the list of banned occupations was not cogitated as a threat to the sanctity of the house because it requires monitoring.
The media and civil society organisations must stay intact in such a hard time when the freedom of expression and a rights-based approach towards any issue or cause is facing severe confrontation by the state itself to keep up human dignity in such a time where some segments among the educated lot consider their ego, comfort and authority above human lives.
Habiba Salman
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2017.
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