Domestic labour: a stolen childhood

Child domestic labour is familiar to most of us — it is one part of our daily life; a reality we shy away from but nevertheless are a party to. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines child labour as employment of children in any work that deprives them of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful. Child domestic labour refers to children employed to carry out household work.

In absence of any recent study we cannot be certain on the number of child domestic workers in Pakistan. The figure reported by the ILO in 2004 reported the number to be 264,000. With population explosion, increasing poverty and stagnant unskilled wages, it may be safely assumed this number may be in multiples of the 2004 study. The ILO report classifies as the worst form of child labour, any domestic work, ‘where a child works, for long hours, during the night and is unreasonably confined to the premises of an employer, sometimes under debt bondage.’

Pakistan Human Rights report of 2013 also highlighted the plight of these children who were abused, beaten and made to work long hours by their employers. The Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC) reported 47 such cases in Pakistan between 2010 and 2014, out of which children in 24 lost their lives to oppression from their employers. Such statistics are the tip of the iceberg as only prominent cases get reported in the media.

A few years back media reported on Tehmina, a 12-year-old domestic worker who was left paralysed after being pushed off a balcony in the house she worked at following a brutal beating by her employers. Her death never saw true justice as her father was eased with an out-of-court settlement. In recent times, the case of 10-year-old Tayyaba tortured to death by her employers has come to light where yet again the legislation has favoured the powerful. As the violators were released on bail without having to spend a single day in prison.

Although Pakistan has ratified most international conventions on child labour, laws enacted are not aligned with the standards laid out by these conventions. Article 11 (3) of the Constitution prohibits employment of children under the age of 14 years in mines, factories, and other hazardous occupations; but domestic work is not categorised as ‘hazardous’. Keeping in mind the torture and death occurring as a result of child domestic labour, human-rights activists are calling for inclusion of domestic labour in the category of hazardous occupation.

There is a need for society to reject employing children as domestic servants. The constitution of Pakistan clearly stipulates in Article 25 A, Right to Education that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age five to sixteen years” and in 37E, Promotion of Social Justice and eradication of Social Evils ‘the State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not employed in vocations unsuited for their age and sex.”                     Foremost, the government must fulfill its responsibility to children as laid out in the Constitution to provide free and compulsory education. De-legitimising domestic child labour either through awareness campaigns or legislation imposing restrictions or standards may be another step. India has already seen the incidence of child labour decrease 64% from 1993-2005 due to increasing regulations and legal restrictions.

Media and civil societies may also play an effective role in highlighting how child domestic labour robs children of their childhood. Collectively we must fight the employment of children as domestic workers.

Children belong in schools and playgrounds, not kitchens. They are meant to dream and not mop floors, they need to be given education and not a beating for a job undone. With Labour Day just around the corner, let us pledge not to let childhood be stolen any more.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2018.

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