Call to ban child domestic labour

LAHORE
THE Children Advocacy Network (CAN Pakistan) has demanded an urgent action by the Punjab government for banning the child domestic labour to save children from abuse and exploitation.
This was demanded during a seminar on Child Domestic Labour: A Contemporary Form of Slavery arranged jointly by Lahore College for Women University and Children Advocacy Network (CAN) under its youth engagement for Child Protection Programme on Wednesday.
CAN Pakistan’s Youth Engagement Officer Nazeefa Fatima shared that despite occurring of around 36 incidents of deaths as a result of torture by their employers, still Government of Punjab did not come with necessary legal, administrative, financial and other measures to respond to this kind of violence against children in the province.
Fatima stressed that the youth should put demands for the establishment of child protection system before the government and other political parties, she added. The youth can play a positive role in influencing the government for investing in protection of children from abuse and exploitation, Nazeefa said.
Executive Director WISE Bushra Khaliq said that employment of children in households was totally against the spirit of the Article 25 A of the Constitution of Pakistan, and the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014, which emphasised and guaranteed free and compulsory education to children from five to 16 years of age, were not only deprived of the right to education but also of the right to health services, right to survival, right to food, right to proper care, right to development, right to have friends, right to play, right to enjoy free time and right to protection from abuse, violence and exploitation. In view of Khaliq, child domestic labour is promoting a class difference among children which can also leave negative impacts on a child’s psychological and emotional wellbeing.
Iftikhar Mubarik from Plan International Pakistan said that due to given nature of child domestic work, international community and the UN reporter of contemporary forms of slavery have declared it a form of slavery. He further said the Government of Pakistan had ratified various international conventions including United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC), ILO Convention 138 & 182.