LAHORE, June 26: A child, about 10, was found sitting on a footpath by a family in the Defence Housing Society on June 20.
It was dark and the family failed to understand what was wrong with the boy. On their queries, the boy broke into tears.
Identified himself as Sajid, the boy pointed towards bruises around his eyes and swelled head. His arms, too, had swelling and scars of torture. His knees were swelled and eyes had blood accumulated in them.
Sajid pointed finger at a house nearby saying it was his master’s and refused to go there when the family tried to take him over there. Then, the family took the child to SOS village on the Ferozepur Road.
SOS Director Miss Almas Butt told Dawn that she received the boy at midnight that day. She said the boy was baffled and was sent to sleep.
Next morning, she said the boy wake up and started shouting “Give me duster. I am going to wash floor. Don’t beat me. I am ready to work.” “This was shocking for us,” said Miss Almas, adding it took hours to soothe the boy.
Quoting the boy and conclusions of their findings, Miss Almas and Mrs Riaz Ahmad, national coordinator of the SOS, said his mother Nawab bibi had sent him for employment in the house of one Ishtiaq Khan, a resident of 31/J, Defence Housing Society some months ago. She had never returned ever since, they claimed.
Sajid was assigned donkey labour and was often beaten by Ishtiaq’s wife, they said, adding he did not know her name.
On the day he was taken to the SOS, he was severely beaten by his mistress. His head was hit against a wall and he received blows and kicks on his face and body, they claimed.
“The child is malnourished and he sustained severe injuries,” they said. The mother of the boy and his mistress had brought him to the world of miseries, they added.
The boy was examined in the Lahore General Hospital. Its initial report says the boy has soft tissues swelled of both elbows, swelling over both eyes, injuries on head and knees. It also highlights neuro and eye sight problems and has referred to specialists concerned for these complications.
The Defence police have registered a case with no arrest so far.
Talking to Dawn at the SOS village, the boy, who seemed to be relaxed after spending some days in an environment much different to that of he had gone through in the last some months, said he hailed from Janiwala village in Toba Tek Singh. Sajid said his mother married one Nawaz after his father Muzammal’s death. “My step-father never beat me,” he said. He has four brothers and a sister back at home from where, according to him, his mother brought him to the house in Lahore with the reference of one Chaudhry Aqeel of his village.
“I never came out of the Defence house since I was dropped there. I was given food only once a day and I spent all the nights there sleeping on floor in verandah, “ he cried.
Sajid said none of the family members at home beat him except Begum Sahib. She used to torture me almost daily over trivial matters, he said.
The boy identified the Begum Sahib’s children as Sajeel, Adeel, Hira, Sadia, Sara and Tania and two other servants as Naureen and her husband Ahmad.
Sajid said he did not want to go back home and meet hid mother.
“I would love to study if any body wanted to teach me.” he said.
Quoting a survey carried out by the ILO and other non-government organizations, the annual HRCP report says at least 3.3 million children under 14, of the total child population of 40 million, were engaged in labour in Pakistan.