Call for enforcing laws against child domestic labour

Expressing concerns over the abhorrent conditions faced by children stuck in a life of domestic drudgery, parliamentarians and civil society activists called for the enactment of the recent laws passed against child domestic labour, as well as those passed earlier.

In a consultation on the ‘Status of Child Rights in Sindh’ - jointly organised by the Child Rights Movement (CRM) and the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) - participants discussed child rights laws passed by the Sindh Assembly to address shortcomings in their implementation and a future plan of action.

The laws included the Sindh Prohibition of Employment Act, 2016; the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013; the Sindh Right of Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2013 and the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011.

Among the panellists of the discussion were advocate Supreme Court and child rights expert, Anees Jilani, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Karamat Ali, child rights expert, Iqbal Detho, Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi and advisor to the chief minister on social welfare, Shamim Mumtaz.

Among prominent participants of the event were MPAs Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, Naila Munir, Heer Soho, Rana Ansar, Naheed Begum, Shafi Muhammad Jamot and Ameer Hyder Shah; representatives of the police force and media also attended the programme.

Emphasising on the amendment in the Employment of Children Act, 1991, and other related laws, Jilani said there was a dire need of a discussion on laws passed for child protection and reasons for their poor implementation.

He said Pakistan was almost among the top countries that have a huge number of children employed as domestic help. “We did not see any genuine steps taken by the government to curb child labour, especially those employed as domestic workers. Neither did the government devise any new legislation to bring domestic child workers within the ambit of the law,” he added.

Detho said that a rise in cases of abuse against child domestic workers was alarming, as he called for a complete ban on hiring children as domestic help. Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi said the last official Child Labour Survey was conducted some 21 years ago. She said it was unfortunate to know that the country did not have official statistics of child domestic labourers. She urged the government to conduct a Child Labour Survey, with immediate effect and include child domestic workers in it.

On the other hand, the chief minister’s advisor claimed the Sindh government had been taking proactive measures to activate the Child Protection Authority for the past year. “The authority has been activated and around five meetings have been conducted so far,” she said, adding, that Sindh will now be able to establish Child Protection Units across the province.

In the consultation, participants suggested the Sindh government’s Social Welfare Department establishes the CRUs in all 29 districts of the province with budgetary allocation and utilisation with immediate effect.

Among other suggestions, the participants also emphasised on the department spending the allocated amount, under Child Protection Authority Act, in spirit for the protection and promotion of child rights in the province.