‘Urgent reforms needed to end child domestic labour’

Organisations dedicated to children's well-being stress need for change in policies

LAHORE:

Legislative reforms and massive campaigns are needed to prevent children from domestic servitude. The participants noted that child domestic labour was a clear violation of children’s right to protection, as it subjects them to harmful and exploitative conditions that can have long-lasting physical, emotional and psychological consequences.

This was emphasised during a media briefing on Child Domestic Labour in Punjab, jointly arranged by Search for Justice and Children Advocacy Network- CAN Pakistan, with the support of KinderNothilfe (KNH).

Working within private households often isolates child domestic labourers from society. This isolation can impede their social development and further exacerbate their vulnerability to exploitation.

The participants also urged the federal and provincial governments to take concrete actions to prohibit child domestic labour.

Search for Justice Executive Director Iftikhar Mubarik shared that the recent cruel incident involving a child domestic worker named Rizwana was the worst example of cruelty and exploitation faced by thousands of children involved in domestic labour.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2023.