“The first observation that I would like to make is this, you will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state”
“If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this state with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you make."
- August 11, 1947 address of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to the members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, to the status of a national covenant.
It goes without saying, that, that Pakistan was a mere dream and never existed and the golden principles of equality, fraternity and justice for all remained just empty words.
The recent case of the brutal violence on the domestic servant girl Tayyaba beaten and injured by Maheen Zafar, the wife of a sitting judge Khurram khan has once again highlighted the plight of the miserable condition of millions of poor children in Pakistan who are forced to serve as domestic servants and bonded slaves in utterly wretched conditions. The children in domestic work are not even recognized as ‘child labour’ by society and by a number of governments, but rather as a normal feature of a ‘normal’ society.
The vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance, lack of opportunities, poor state patronage, insufficient laws to combat child abuse, and non-implementation of the existing laws combined with total apathy of the society has resulted in an unending series of gruesome and heinous crimes against children of all ages in this unfortunate country.
The tragedy is that these poor children have no say in being forced into labour. Most of them have never been to a school and do not even know the simplest arithmetic to understand what their labour is worth in terms of money and have no other option but to accept the decision of their parents or guardians. The children become the easiest available commodity for the family to sell out in order to cater to some need of the family.
The question arising here is over the role of the state and the need to redefine that role. Who is ultimately responsible for the well being of the most vulnerable members of the society? Can the state allow the commodification of the children and women and can any genuine need justify the selling of the children as slaves and servants to modern day masters to be exploited, abused and even killed? Who is ultimately responsible for the torture to Tayyaba and all the other abused children like her? Can the state and society be absolved of her death? I believe that the primary culprits in these cases are the parents of these children and they must be given an exemplary punishment by the state. The rescued or recovered children must never be handed over to these parents again and they must be held accountable for the harm inflicted on the children.
There has never been any in-depth research done on the issue, but the recent case of Tayyaba or Shazia Masih’s murder case in 2010 can no longer be treated as isolated cases. We cannot let the abuse of children go on in our country. We cannot let the children be butchered physically, psychologically, mentally, by the exploiters because their parents are either too poor or too greedy or too ignorant to do anything else but to sell their children.
If their parents cannot find passion in their hearts for their own flesh and blood and are ready to sacrifice them as lambs on the altar of greed then how can they question the cruelty of the masters who in their arrogance behave nothing less than demigods. Who has not seen the poor domestic servant girls and boys trotting behind rich families in markets and restaurants looking after the babas and the babies of their rich masters? Who can measure the agony and pain of living in a paradox and being treated as the children of lesser God every second of your life? Who can measure the hurt of being reminded of being a lesser human being, a third rate apartheid citizen in the land of rich and pure.
HRCP and some other organizations have raised the question of bonded labour and indentured servitude many times but unfortunately as yet, legislation and action plans on child labour do not include any clause specifically about domestic labour of children and bondage.
According to ILO Convention No.182 the domestic compulsory labour is also a form of slavery,
• All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
• Work, which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
Child domestic labourers are invisible and difficult to reach and count, job arrangements are informal and most of these jobs are neither registered nor do they form part of any system of official job registers, leading to underestimation in labour force statistics. Most of the child domestic workers are illiterate and don’t even know the locality they are in or sometimes even the city. They cannot call anyone for help or have any way to reach out to someone they know. This increases their vulnerability to such an extent that they become easy prey to abuse. Most of these children are totally unaware of the nature of work they are supposed to do and that is the primary reason that they are subject to all kinds of work by the exploitative employers.
The resident domestic servants become full time servants available at all hours for doing all sorts of work including hazardous work which puts them at a grave danger and can also prove fatal.
Working as a domestic servant can be extremely hazardous to the young child and according to ILO convention 182 it can become a worse form of child labour. Household chores include cooking and serving food (chopping vegetables using sharp knives, boiling water, lighting fires, dealing with gas and electricity), fetching and carrying heavy water pots, handling disinfectants and other chemicals. Washing and ironing clothes, often taking clothes and linen out of boiling water and operating hot irons. Visiting market and carrying heavy bags while often being exposed to sexual suggestions in the street.
What is needed on an urgent basis is for the parliament to make appropriate laws for putting strict restriction on the resident full time child domestic labour. The parliament must make laws for the protection of the nonresident domestic servants and their minimum age and minimum wages must be fixed in accordance with the existing labour laws. The domestic workers should also be included in the labour force count and social security benefits must be extended to them.
The most stomach turning aspect of this issue is the nauseating apathy of the parents and society. There are simply no words to condemn the brutality of the people who subject these children to severe labour. Each one of us has the responsibility to condemn child labor and bonded servants and we must firmly stand up against anyone and everyone who employees an underage child.