PESHAWAR, Dec 30: Speakers at a seminar here have stressed the need for legislation for domestic child labour as many of the children were neither paid proper amount nor have any medical or legal cover.
The seminar was organized by the International Labour Organization and the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child (Sparc) on Thursday to raise awareness among public representatives, lawyers and media on elimination of domestic child labour.
Most of the children working at houses were not paid decent amount, besides their salary and working hours were also not fixed. These children were often given work hazardous to their physical and mental health and damaged their moral integrity, said Salma Jafar, programme coordinator of the ILO, Islamabad.
Pakistan had ratified the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, but domestic labour was excluded from the list of hazardous occupation list. Children involved in domestic labour were exposed to verbal, physical and sexual exploitation because they worked within the privacy of a house, Ms Jafar said.
There was no law to regulate domestic child labour and children who did not know their rights also did not have the power to negotiate to fix their working hours or salary so they were easily suppressed, she added.
About five per cent of income in poor families was earned by children aged 12 and above who work as domestic servants. In many cases children below 12 years were also employed at houses for jobs of various nature, Arshad Mehmood, provincial coordinator of Sparc, maintained.
The income earned by these children was so low that it could not improve the financial position of their family, rather it made the future of these children bleak, Mr Mehmood added.
The organizers also shared with participants results of their research which was conducted in posh localities of Peshawar and Lahore regarding domestic child labourers. Jawadullah Khan, project coordinator of Sparc, said in order to collect data about domestic child labourers and the conditions in which they worked, a team visited Hayatabad in Peshawar and Defence Society in Lahore.
He said that there were about 72 child servants working in 369 houses of Hayatabad area, which meant that in every fifth house there was a child servant. In Lahore, there were 65 child workers in 446 houses, which meant that in every seventh house there was one child servant. Most of these children were below the age of 12 and paid Rs500 as monthly salary.
The survey also found that these children worked in the confinement of a house which could not be accessed by researchers. Most of the children worked in isolation and the oppressive attitude of their employers had turned domestic labour into slavery, Mr Khan said.
The exact number of domestic child labourers in the country was not known as these children worked in houses which were not easily accessible. However, according to figures collected by different NGOs, eight million children were working as child labours and 264,000 children aged between 12-14 years were involved in social service, he added.
Deputy Director of the Labour Department, Zahoor Ahmed, in his speech said that legislation could be a deterrent, if not the solution, of domestic child labour. It was a deep-rooted problem and the government and the NGOs should make joint efforts for its elimination.
Speaking on the occasion, a participant, Maryam Bibi, said safety and security of children who worked as domestic labour should be ensured by making laws to regulate domestic child labour.
Speakers, who included lawyers, union councillors and naib nazims from Swabi and Peshawar districts, said the problem of child labour could be addressed through effective implementation of the Education For All (EFA) programme, while these children who worked at domestic level should be given a few hours break to attend schools.
Moreover, they said, community should be sensitised about child labour and the rights of domestic child labourers who worked in isolation for long hours on low salaries.
There was no legal protection to these children and they often developed psychological problems, they lamented. The speakers stressed the need for creating awareness about the negative impacts of labour on the physical and mental growth of children.
