Fine-tuning: ‘Govt looking to curb abuse of child help’

LAHORE:

Child Protection and Welfare Bureau president Saba Sadiq said on Wednesday the provincial government was working on introducing laws to curb violence against child domestic help.

She said legislation in this regard was being drafted by the Law Department. She said though previously, the bureau had used the Pakistan Penal Code to check violence against children working as domestic help, they had now taken into account recommendations by various NGOs.

“Over time, we felt that specific laws were required to tackle the issue,” she said.

She was addressing a seminar at Lahore College for Women University in association with Children Advocacy Network on child domestic help. Sadiq gave an overview of the work done by the bureau since December 2013. “The bureau’s doors are open to those who need help,” she said. Discussing cases she had handled during her tenure as president of the bureau, Sadiq said besides employers, parents were also involved in perpetuating violence against children. She said in a lot of cases, children could not be returned to their parents because they would be sent back to work, without any concern for their safety.

Iftikhar Mubarik from Plan International said domestic labour was the worst form of child labour. He said children working as domestic help were denied their childhood.

He said, “It is a misconception that most of violence against child domestic workers is due to a lack of awareness and education. In the past three years, we have had at least 40 cases where a child worker died at the hands of educated individuals,” he said.  He said Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. “But 25 years later, there is very little progress where protection of children are concerned,” he said. Aima Mehmood, executive director of the Working Women’s Organisation, said the government must put and end to child labour and ensuring that parents sent their children to school instead of work. She said poverty was not the only reason why child labour continued unabated. “It is because children provide cheap labour and are unaware of their rights,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2015.