Gruesome violence against child domestic servants is growing alarmingly
After the dastardly case of the tortured child maid Tayyaba – which was a sad saga of poverty stricken families, sadistic employers and callous shortcomings of our criminal justice system – another instance of an even worse nature has surfaced in Gujranwala. Here, a twelve year old girl suffered severe burns when a demented householder threw hot tea on her face on a slight delay in service. A medical test conducted also revealed signs of sexual assault, and it was only by a combination of these horrid complaints that a case was finally registered against her employer and his brother.
National laws on the rights of the child do exist on paper, and they are, or ought to be, reinforced by international treaties to which our country is a signatory. However, child labour remains widespread and at the cruel mercy of unstable employers. Under these circumstances, there is a dire need for framing new, strict laws covering child domestic labour by the four provincial assemblies, as the subject of Labour has devolved on them after the 18th Amendment. An informed input from all concerned state and non-state bodies, including rights organisations and activists, and a rudimentary record or registration mechanism of such labour, should be passed, carrying deterrent punishment for offenders, which are truly implemented in needful cases. But here one passes from the dreaming Ideal into the ugly Real and an almost unbridgeable gulf lies between the two in our infantile, exploitative culture.
The proper social spirit of outrage that leads on to an indignant community reaction against such abominations is also sadly lacking. The lingering feudal mindset, chauvinism, violent intolerance and bigotry which are a concomitant of our worldview, prefer only smiling slaves, even if they face inhuman working conditions and barbaric physical abuse. The Sindh Assembly has recently passed the Prohibition of Employment of Children Bill 2017, banning the employment of children under 14 in any establishment or commercial enterprise, and carrying stiff penalties for abusers – but it too appears to have overlooked the domestic front.
