Innocence lost: Child domestic labour

The murder of a 10 year old child domestic worker Irum by her employers in Lahore made headlines last week. I’d like to share with readers however, that Irum’s cruel torture to death is not the first case of torture to death of a child domestic worker in Pakistan. Approximately 45 cases of violence against child domestic workers were reported in media since Shazia Masih’s tragic and cruel murder in January 2010 in Lahore. Irum is 22nd child domestic worker tortured to death and majority of these cases have been reported in Punjab. Iram’s murder was the first case of torture to death of child domestic workers in 2014 followed by two other such cases of 16 year old and 12 year old Fizza Batool all from Lahore.

If someone has any doubts, please google Shazia Masih (Lahore), Jamil (Multan) Yasmin (Okara), Shehzad (Gujranwala) Tehmina (Islamabad) to name a few. All these cases show that child domestic labour is one of the deadliest form of child labour in Pakistan. However, the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan have failed to respond to the situation. The problem with Pakistani society is that we have short memories and forget about such cases after a few days. We don’t have any follow up mechanism and such cases remain in the limelight till media keep following it. Once media loss its interest, everyone forget about it until the new reported case in a few months’ time.

Similarly, the Government is constantly in denial mode despite the fact that it has been proved by the brutal torture to death of 22 child domestic workers. A much higher number got injuries including lifelong injuries and a number are missing. There are organized gangs who are involved in internal trafficking of children and are providing children as domestic servants in big urban centers. The federal government is required to put an immediate ban on child domestic labour by adding child domestic labour in the schedule of banned occupations under the Employment of Children Act (ECA) 1991 through a notification in official Gazette.

The only argument from those in the government against putting child domestic labour in the schedule of banned occupations under the ECA is that it wouldn’t be possible for Labour Inspectors to conduct inspections of houses. In my opinion even where labour department can conduct inspections, what achievement has been made by them or what positive impact is created as for as labour rights in Pakistan is concerned? Agreed that policing is not a solution however, the ban will send a signal to those educated people, bureaucrats, parliamentarians and common people that this is something against the law. Extensive awareness raising campaigns by civil society will help reduce the number of child domestic workers and will also put the employers on an alert against torturing innocent children.

Similarly, I’ll also request Chief Minister Punjab to take a proactive action and immediately ban child domestic labour under the schedule of banned occupations of the Punjab Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011. This is important as almost twenty of the twenty two child domestic workers’ torture to death cases have been reported from Punjab. The Government of Punjab should wake up now and respond to this situation.

For resolving the issue of child labour on sustainable basis in Pakistan, the federal and provincial governments should make serious efforts to implement Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan about right to free and compulsory education for children 5 to 16. The Government of Punjab should immediately enact the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill and make sufficient budgetary allocation for the implementation of the law.

This blog first published in Tribune Blogs on January 06, 2014 http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/20461/in-lahore-does-child-labour-and-torture-go-hand-in-hand/