OURS is a flawed social order. Callous and classist, it is numb to the plague of child labour and abuse, which is rampant despite a surfeit of laws. Little Rizwana’s is the most recent case; mounting uproar has forced the authorities to constitute a JIT to investigate the torture perpetrated on the 13-year-old domestic worker. An Islamabad DIG Operations will lead a team of four officers from ISI, IB and the police. Moreover, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights has demanded that the law ministry begin the process to remove the judge, who had employed her, from service.

Domestic labour is classified as informal work, or as ‘invisible workers’. Even laws such as The Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection Bill, 2017, that underlines care and protection of children from neglect, violence, abuse and exploitation, fail to secure rights or regulate checks on the provision of minimum wage, a wholesome environment and security. We must remember that child domestic work is internationally viewed as ‘modern slavery’. In 2001, Pakistan ratified the ILO’s ‘Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention’. The organisation identifies child domestic work as the basest form of labour. Admittedly, this ‘invisible’ susceptibility is in proportion with its causes — poverty, lack of education, poor rule of law and absence of social welfare mechanisms — so the lure of money forces indigent parents to send children as cheap labour. It is time the government updated data of child workers to alleviate their situation with incentivised schooling and vocational training. On the other end, the leadership’s failure to establish protection units for women and children speaks volumes for its apathy towards the young and their lost childhood. Therefore, the JIT has to ensure a failsafe end and set a firm precedent. Our human rights profile cannot be redeemed without a cultural shift: break feudal mindsets that demean so that laws are effective.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2023