Accountability: Child domestic labour ban demanded

‘This is the 29th death of a child servant in the Punjab since 2010’.

LAHORE:

The Child Rights Movement (CRM) on Monday condemned the death of a domestic worker in Lahore on February 13. A 13 year old child domestic worker, was found strangled at her employers’ house.

CRM Punjab Coordinator Ghazi Nazir said this was the 29^th case of a child domestic worker’s death in the Punjab since 2010. said 52 cases of tortures and 24 deaths had been reported from January 2010 to December 2013. In 2010, 12 cases of torture were reported including seven deaths. In 2011, 10 cases of torture were reported, including six deaths. In 2012, eight cases including three deaths were reported. In 2013, 21 cases, including eight deaths were reported. All of the cases in 2013, except two, were reported from the Punjab. In all cases the victims were girls. The last reported case in 2013 was of a nine-year-old girl from Gujranwala beaten up for stealing gold jewellery and suspended from a ceiling fan, Nazir said.

Abdullah Khoso, a human rights activist, said in most such cases the parents withdrew the complaints following a settlement with the employer. Khoso said that although the Supreme Court of Pakistan had declared child domestic labour illegal in 2013 on the application of the Institute for Social Justice, millions of children in Pakistan were still working as domestic servants. The CRM urged the government to immediately ban child domestic labour and ensure the protection of children.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2014.