November 30, 2006

The hidden nature of child labour makes children vulnerable to many violations of their rights including health and education, writes Baela Raza Jamil

The recently reported cases of rape and torture of 17-year-old Shumaila and 13-year-old Saadia Gul have once again highlighted the need to adhere to ILO Convention 182 and recognise Child Domestic Labour (CDL) as the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL). Even though the government of Pakistan is a signatory to this convention – unlike India and Nepal – Islamabad does not recognise domestic child labour as WFCL.

This is despite the fact that children’s engagement in this form of labour is common throughout the country. According to a rough estimate nearly 26 per cent of households employ children as domestic servants in the major cities. Girls are predominant in number particularly in Punjab and Sindh whilst in Balochistan and NWFP boys marginally outnumber girls.

Shumaila and Saadia Gul were forced to work in households under their bonded labour agreement. Raped repeatedly, they endured sexual abuse for a long time. Their parents had full knowledge of it but couldn’t do anything as they themselves were subjected to repression, owing to extreme poverty and lack of access to any social safety nets.

Shumaila became pregnant thrice, and had to opt for abortion putting her life at risk every time. In both cases the perpetrators belonged to landowning families, with the connections to influence the legal machinery of the country.

Saadia, thanks to her mother’s courage, was fortunately able to access the judicial system. Her case is currently under hearing with the Supreme Court, whilst Shumaila is still in search of justice. It is common knowledge that access to the judicial activism of the Supreme Court is very difficult. However, in the present scenario, it is the only recourse for citizens since the lower courts work in the most biased manner and certainly do not uphold the rights of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable sections of the population.

Usually children involved in CDL are a neglected and secluded segment of the workforce in the country. Rights of children engaged in this particular kind of labour have never received their due recognition; neither by the government nor by the civil society.

The hidden nature of this form of labour makes children vulnerable to many violations of their rights including health, education and other facilities necessary for the complete development of their personality. The problem is further exacerbated by the absence of any regulations and laws defining their work hours, pay scales and appropriate working conditions. There is another school of thought that defends CDL suggesting that this is a mild and the most protective form of child labour to offset poverty, since they get shelter, food and better treatment when compared to other fields of work.

However, cases similar to Shumaila’s and Saadia’s defy such claims. It is true that these are extreme cases, but there are many children who are in extremely vulnerable positions, facing various forms of violence, just falling short of atrocities such as rape and even murder.

To address the issue of CDL, a South Asian regional project was launched by ILO in 2004 with Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aaghai (ITA) as the implementing partner in Pakistan. The objective of this project was to contribute to the progressive and effective elimination of child labour in South Asia and Elimination of CDL in Pakistan.

Under this programme nearly 1,004 children under the age of 18, were approached, and out of these 57 per cent were mainstreamed into formal schools whilst 22 per cent were provided alternative certified skills for safer jobs. Fourteen per cent of these children dropped out and only seven per cent wanted to continue with informal education.

The Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education has taken up this programme to cover 1,500 children, but the number is too little and much more needs to be done urgently across the country on a bigger scale in order to avoid recurrence of similar cases.

The biggest impediment in combating the issue of child labour in the domestic sector is the absence of comprehensive research in this regard which could form the basis of an effective policy or legislation. The research undertaken so far on CDL has been looking at the mildest, obvious category without engaging in the complex qualitative aspects of its progressive forms.

There are eight forms of CDL that denote a progressive increase in various forms of violence against children; from denial of food and holidays to harsh abusive language, physical and sexual abuse, increase in violence as it merges with child trafficking; child bondage and the extreme faces of Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL).

It is worth mentioning here that though only cases of extreme violence may hit the headlines, the children involved in this form of labour say that the daily acts of violence and abuse, though less in intensity, hurt them and corrode their self-esteem.

It is high time that the government and the civil society took appropriate steps to eliminate this menace from society and work for a more equitable and just social order.

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