FAISALABAD: Overcrowded buses and trains on Eids suggest the festivals are the marked occasion of a formal reunion for the families and individuals residing in the places away from their native towns.

But not for several dozen minors of Sindh’s Shikarpur district, who have to spend Eid festivals at their masters’ houses in Faisalabad.

Noreen Bibi travelled to Faisalabad from Shikarpur to meet her seven-year-old son to greet him Eid at his employer’s house in Raja Colony.

“My son will not spend Eid with us, that’s why I’ve come here to meet him so that he doesn’t feel loneliness,” she told Dawn in her choked voice.

The visit also made the poor woman’s day as the employer handed her over the salary of her son, some new and used clothes and a load of edibles.

Dozens of families from Shikarpur visit Faisalabad in the last 10 days of Ramazan to meet their children serving as domestic help in localities against a Rs1,000 to Rs5,000 monthly salary.

This Dawn correspondent met some parents who travelled to Punjab in a rented coach. While going back to Shikarpur, the roof of the bus was loaded with the bundles of clothes and grains.

A couple of days ago, the coach of a group of parents met with an accident in Sahiwal and some of the people were injured.

Ikram, another man from Shikarpur, was in Faisalabad to meet his son Nabeel, domestic help in a house.

Ikram said he had to send his minor son hundreds of miles away from home to Faisalabad for he had no ample sources of income in Shikarpur. He landed the job for his son through one Safia Bibi who works in Lahore.

He said Safia charged Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 from both the employer and the employee in advance for her services.

He said one could not assess the pain and feelings of the parents whose minor children had to do jobs away from their house.

Minors are given tasks in accordance with their age, say the parents. Those aged five to eight years are tasked with babysitting, scrubbing and running errands.

Those nine to 16 years age are to perform laundry, babysitting and cleanliness of the house.

Other than the salary, employers provide them three time meals, residence and clothes once in six months.

Some domestic helps have to suffer abuses and violence by their masters.

Sarwar Nana, whose son worked at a house near Iqbal Stadium, said the house owner had punished his son with three cuts on his arm a few weeks ago for the boy could not perform some task as per the satisfaction of her will.

He says when they asked the owner why she had done this, the lady “directed’ us to remain silent and leave Faisalabad”.

Having no acquaintance in Faisalabad, he said he had to get his son treated at a hospital in Lahore.

Now the child is serving in a Lahore house.He says the lack of sources and poor law and order in Shikarpur make such domestic jobs in Punjab cities a good deal for their children.

“I know the cuts my son suffered from his lady will gradually heal but the deep scars of poverty back in home are hard to go,” he sighs.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016