By Noor Aftab
Civil society organisations showing dissatisfaction over the existing laws regarding child and domestic labour have underlined the need for a new set of rules to purge society of this unethical and illegal practice.
Shahnaz Bukhari, a prominent social activist, told ‘The News’ that existing laws are not enough to reduce domestic and child labour, as hundreds of thousands of children are being forced to work in houses, factories and other workplaces.
According to ‘Child Domestic Servants in Islamabad,’ the general appearance of these children reflects neglect and lack of love and they feel alienated despite being living in posh houses.
Shahnaz Bukhari said that it is generally observed that parents leave their children in posh houses without reaching any written agreement where they are sometimes subjected to violence and physical abuse. “There are many cases in which little girls were abused and raped, but because of absence of proper and strict laws, the perpetrators managed to escape punishment.”
Though, she said, child domestic labour is subsumed in child labour category, the legal framework does not contain separate specific laws for discouraging and regulating child domestic labour in the country. She said new laws should clearly determine the minimum wages and duration of work if an adult girl or boy works in any house or factory.
Poverty is cited, as the greatest single factor, which pushes the children or their families into debt trap, as was recently argued by Pakistan Permanent Representative to UN Geneva office, while submitting report on Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Sameena Nazir, whose organisation works for the protection of girls and women, said it is imperative to raise awareness regarding child labour issue, so that it emerges as a critical issue both for the government and civil society. She said the domestic or child labourers cannot go to schools because of financial problems and they only watch others go to schools and can merely wish to seek knowledge.
The child and domestic labour is an outcome of a multitude of socio-economic factors and has its roots in poverty, lack of opportunities, high rate of population growth, unemployment, uneven distribution of wealth and resources, outdated social customs and norms and plethora of other factors.
Having been forced to kill their aspirations, dreams and other wishes, the child labourers are pressed to earn living for themselves as well as their families.
Iqbal Detho, national programme manager of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Children (Sparc), said only partial view of child labour is taken most of the time as “we exclude those who do child labour, as secondary activity in addition to their studies.” “The child labour is a complex problem that demands a range of solutions. There is no better way to prevent child labour than to make education compulsory,” he said.
He said sometimes children fall into child slavery due to the social system based on the exploitation of poverty, such as debt bondage. Though in a country where economic crisis has doubly hit the poor and where people living below the poverty line is increasing, than the idea of totally eliminating child labour seems to be a far cry.
Sparc Executive Director Qindeel Shujaat said the government must improve child labour legislation like ECA-91, where implementation mechanism is non-existent and effectively implement enforcement mechanism under Factories Act-74 and Shops and Establishment Ordinances-69.
Qindeel said the issue could be effectively tackled in the forthcoming legislation on Employment and Services Conditions Bill. She said the constitution states: “No child below the age of fourteen, shall be engaged in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment.” The critical situation calls for building alliances against the child labour at local and national level especially with the coordination of media and non-governmental organisations.