For a society which still refuses to consider child labour as a gross violation of the rights of children, innumerable girls from impoverished households continue to work as domestic workers and nannies across affluent households in the country.
While some of these girls are lucky to find humane employers, many others end up in the violent hold of abusive families, who in the absence of a cohesive child abuse case management system, easily get away with inflicting atrocious physical harm on the innocent children.
Last year, Rizwana, a 12-year-old domestic worker was brutally beaten with sticks and attacked with acid at the house of a civil judge in Islamabad. The nature of her injuries was such that she had to be transferred from Islamabad to the General Hospital in Lahore for specialized surgical treatment.
Although the Police, Ministry of Human Rights and Child Protection Bureau took notice of the incident after outcry from the media, even today, the accused, who has been promoted to a higher rank, continues to roam around freely since the case is still pending in court.
"It has been a year, and I still don't know which lawyer is handling my daughter's case. The accused have used different tactics to pressurize us for reconciliation. We were even offered money, but I want nothing but justice for my child," cried Rizwana's mother, Shamim Bibi, who hails from Sargodha and does not have the finances to visit the court in Islamabad, where her daughter's case is still pending.
A couple of months after Rizwana's case, another 10-year-old domestic worker, Gulnaz Fatima was tortured by a man and his wife in Johar Town. In the aftermath of this incident too, the police registered a case against the accused while the victim was left in the custody of the Child Protection Bureau however, this case too remains hanging for an indefinite period.
"I am still waiting for the accused, who tortured my daughter, to be punished. The Police and the Child Protection Bureau have helped us a lot, but the status of the case is unknown. Hopefully, we will get justice one day," said Mumtaz Bibi, Gulnaz Fatima's mother.
According to Iftikhar Mubarak, Head of Search for Justice, legal loopholes in the country's judicial system have allowed powerful and influential people to escape penalization since the cases are delayed for years and the plaintiffs have no option but to reconcile out of financial constraints or some kind of coercion.
"Ideally, the state itself should become the plaintiff in such cases but the number of government prosecutors is very small while the number of child abuse cases is very high. The families of the victims do not even know which department is handling the case of their child. Therefore, it has been our demand for a long time that a case management and referral system should be devised so that when a case is registered, it is automatically transferred to the concerned department and its status is shared with those involved," urged Mubarak.
In collaboration with the National Commission for Human Rights, an NGO known as Sahil compiled a report on sexual and physical violence against children in 2023, which indicated that a total of 4,213 cases were reported in Pakistan, out of which 53 per cent of the victims were girls and 75 per cent were reported from Punjab alone but the conviction rate for the accused in these cases was barely three per cent or less.
"The policy draft for the case management and referral system has been sent to the provincial cabinet for final approval. After the approval of the cabinet, when the Child Protection Policy is implemented, the system will be in effect and plaintiffs will know the status of their cases," commented Sarah Ahmed, Chairperson of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau.
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