LAHORE, Nov 19: Domestic service has become a nightmare for 10-year-old Sadaf, as it is for an uncountable number of children like her, whose day starts as early as 6am and who works till late in the night.

What makes her world of work so stifling is maltreatment by her employers. Unwilling to leave her house at Muridke, Sadaf was sent to a Faisal Town residence two months ago by her impoverished parents who wanted her to be their earning hand at the tender age.

Tragic is the tale of Sadaf who says she has no problem with the working hours if there is no ‘harsh treatment’ and there is some time for rest. There is hardly any consolation for her as she knows a change of employer will not prove helpful.

There is no count of children like Sadaf who have to give in to parental pressure to contribute to family income because of abject poverty as the World Children’s Day is being observed today (Thursday) under the slogan of ‘Our children, our responsibility’.

According to an estimate, some nine million children in the country are involved in different kinds of labours. But the domestic servants fall among the most ‘invisible’ categories. According to Unicef, their work is performed within individual homes, removed from public scrutiny and their conditions of life and labour are entirely dependent on the whims of their employer(s).

The number of children involved in ‘domestic service’ in the country is unquantifiable because of the hidden nature of the work. Children exploited in domestic service are generally paid little. In fact, it has become a 24-hour job, with the child perpetually on call and subject to the whims of all members of the family.

In addition, children in domestic service are susceptible to physical and psychological harm. Many are forced to undertake tasks that are completely inappropriate for their age and physical strength. The food they are given is often nutritionally inadequate, vastly inferior to the meals eaten by the employing family. They are also at extreme risk of sexual abuse.

A couple of months ago, the police had recovered an 11-year-old maid from a house on Ferozepur Road and registered a case against employer for subjecting her to ‘severe torture’ by the entire family. The owner of the house was later arrested; something which was made possible when a neighbour informed the police about the situation.

Sadaf’s voice may be heard if the government evolves a mechanism to collect a data about the children involved in the domestic service and make legislation deal with it. Besides, there is a need to launch a campaign to sensitise an employing family about the right of the child they hire in domestic service.

Meanwhile, succumbing to international pressure the government has banned child labour in ‘hazardous’ professions like tanneries, scavenging, surgical instruments, glass bangle, coal mining and fishing. But nothing practical is being done for the implementation of the law.

A report says the children associated with hazardous professions are also extremely exposed to terminal diseases. Hundreds of them have already contracted different kinds of diseases.

Children also work in all operations related to leather tanning process, mixing or application or pesticides insecticides, sandblasting and other work involving exposure to free silica, exposing them to all toxic and chemicals, cement and dust industry.

They are also hired to work in manufacturing and sale of fireworks explosives, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) business, glass and metal furnaces, cloth printing, dyeing and finishing sections. They are also made to work inside sewer pipelines, pits and storage tanks, stone crushing, lifting and carrying of heavy weight especially in the transport industry.

Children also work in hotels, carpet weaving, tobacco processing and manufacturing units, wool industry, ship breaking and spice grinding sites, boiler houses and cinemas. Child labour in the informal sector like domestic help, small workshops, self-employed, hotels and restaurants are not usually considered as labour by the government.

Pakistan is signatory to the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and committed to child rights like survival, health, education and protection. Though there are other good number of laws like the Factories Act 1934, the West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance 1969, the Employment of Children Act 1991, The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 and the Punjab Compulsory Primary Education Act 1994, none of them is properly implemented.

Besides, little is being done to address the plight of the destitute and begging children from streets.

In 2000, the United Nations prepared a document titled “A world fit for children” for protecting the childhood (of the children) of the 21st century. What endeavours our succeeding governments have put in to make this world fit for the children remain to be seen.