Pakistan should have a law on domestic child labour as well as domestic labour in general.
By Anees Jillani

IT is sad that a fellow lawyer — and a senior one — should be allegedly involved in torturing Shazia, a 12-year-old girl who was a domestic worker at his house, to the extent that she died. Shazia belonged to the Christian community that faces discrimination in our society.
It was not surprising then that the police was reluctant to register an FIR against the accused and only public uproar forced it to take action.

Chaudhry Naeem, the main accused in the FIR, is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and was formerly president of the Lahore Bar Association. He is allegedly the guilty party in this case, but is he the only one involved in such cruelty? Millions of households all over the country are employing children under the age of 18. Are they not all guilty of the same crime, although many continue to justify it on the grounds of helping a poor child? Child labour is generally legally permissible in the country, due to major loopholes in the relevant legislation. Employment of all children in the age group of 14 to 18 years is allowed in all sectors whether formal or informal.

There are few areas in the formal sector that prohibit labour by children under 14 years, and it is legally allowable in a few sectors with certain restrictions. And then come the big sectors, like domestic child labour, agricultural labour and selfemployed children, which remain totally unregulated.

The media has thankfully picked up on the Shazia case and will hopefully follow the issue until a positive outcome is achieved. A section of civil society has also been galvanised. But it has repeatedly been pointed out to the relevant govern ments that the scope of child labour laws needs to be urgently broadened, and the big gaps in them must be plugged.

All kinds of projects dealing with domestic child labour have been launched. Fancy reports based on surveys have been prepared. They are all now gathering dust. Many in the donor community must now be thinking of commenc ing yet another project on this issue. The Shazias of this country do not need more projects. What we desire and need is action on the part of the federal and provincial governments.

Ideally, Pakistan should have a law governing not just domestic child labour but domestic labour in general. This is the most neglected field as domestic workers employed in people’s households are secluded and thus do not exist as a group and are difficult to reach and be counted. They do domestic chores including cooking, caring for children and running errands at meagre salaries and work totally unregulated hours with no weekly days off.

Quite a few of them — particularly the children — live in deplorable conditions. This is the invisible workforce of Pakistan, and it is high time that a national law was enacted. And if the political will is missing at the national level, then at least provincial laws should be enacted. Giving cheques to Shazia’s parents and hugging her father in front of the cameras is not a solution to the problem. Much more needs to be done on the legislative front.

Pakistan’s constitution only prohibits child labour below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and other areas considered hazardous occupations. The latter term remains undefined but one can argue that child domestic work falls into this category. Additionally, the Factories Act 1934 prohibits under-14 employment in factories, the Mines Act 1923 in mines and the Shops & Establishments Ordinance 1969 in offices and restaurants.

The Employment of Children Act 1991 has a schedule with two parts that lists 38 sectors where employing children under 14 is prohibited. Domestic child labour can easily be added by the federal government to this schedule to outlaw it. The contravention of this ban in the 1991 act is punishable with imprisonment extending to one year, or with a fine of up to Rs20,000, or both.

It is about time that the authorities concerned and the relevant stakeholders — including employers, parents, media and even children — realise that a child employed is a future destroyed. Poverty may be a major cause of child labour but poverty is also caused by child labour. A child who fails to go to school will end up working in menial jobs without learning any major skills all his life and will consequently remain poor.

The vicious cycle of poverty will thus continue. State intervention is required to break this cycle, and the sooner we do it, the more Shazias we will be able to save. ¦ The writer has written Child Labour: the Legal Aspects. aJ@Jillani.org