In June the shocking news of the death of a child domestic worker in Rawalpindi made rounds in both conventional and social media. This eight-year old girl, Zahra, had been brought to the hospital in a critical condition. According to the staff she had severe injuries on her face, hands, near her rib cage and on her legs.

Though she was provided immediate medical aid, she succumbed to her injuries. Zahra had been beaten by her employers (husband and wife), for setting free their expensive parrots, by leaving the door of the cage open. The poor girl had belonged to Kot Addu and was reportedly employed a couple of months ago to take care of a one-year-old child and perform other household chores. The couple had promised, among other things, that they would provide her with an education. Her treatment at setting the parrots free, is reason to believe that physical abuse was routine.

Every other day, one hears about similar cases of torture and physical and sexual abuse of young domestic workers, even deaths. However, the practice of child employment goes on unabated. It is quite common for people to employ child domestic workers, mostly girls, by paying a lump-sum to their parents or guardians and not allowing them to meet their families for months. It would not be an exaggeration to call it bonded labour, under which a bond is created by payment of advance money to their providers. Left at the mercy of their employers and in the absence of any opportunity to meet their parents or relatives, these domestic workers have to work in dire conditions.

Child labour is prohibited across the globes as all nation states have ratified International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) conventions in this regard. Generally it is suggested that children under the age of 15 shall not be employed even for light work and those under 18 shall not do hazardous labour. Individual countries can have slightly different benchmarks for this purpose. In Pakistan, provincial governments have put this bar at 14 or 15 years.

Here we take up the issue of girl child labourers who mostly work in the informal sector and in some cases are totally invisible. For example, when employed as domestic workers they are inside the four walls of a house and as home based workers, brick kiln workers or farm workers they work in the form of family units. It might seem that they are accompanying their family members or giving them support, but actually they are exerting themselves at the cost of their health and education.

Surveys conducted over time show that girls often start working earlier than boys. Paid domestic work is considered the most suitable form of employment for them. From a very early age, they start accompanying their mothers to homes where they are employed. Besides, girl child labour is also employed in packaging sector and adda work (embroidery etc). Labour inspectors can inspect such workplaces to discourage this practice. One reason for their higher employment ratio at an early age is that as compared to boys they have less opportunities to get education. The time they have at their hands is taken by domestic and informal work.

Pakistan is a signatory to the ILO’s Minimum Age Convention (C138) and there are provincial laws that prohibit employment of children at workplaces but this menace is present and has alarming proportions

Bushra Khaliq, the Women In Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) executive director, says their media review of violent incidents related to domestic workers showa that 65 percent of these involved children under 15 years of age. In around 20 percent of the 51 reports of violence against domestic workers, the victims had died as a result. An overwhelming majority of these domestic workers were girls.

Bushra says it is a good thing that there is legislation on prevention of child labour in domestic work, at brick kilns etc, but what is more important is the implementation of these laws. There can be no doubt that enforcement of labour laws in the informal sector is not easy but mechanisms can be developed to discourage child labour, she adds. For example, she says, if children of school-going age are found at brick kilns at school time the parents and the brick kiln owners should be taken to task.

Pakistan is a signatory to the ILO’s Minimum Age Convention (C138) and there are provincial laws that prohibit employment of children at workplaces but this menace is present and has alarming proportions. As labour is a provincial subject, the laws vary from place to place. For example, in Sindh the labour laws apply to agricultural sector but in the Punjab farm workers are not covered under labour laws. Last year, the Punjab came up with a law under which children under the age of 15 cannot be employed in domestic work and action can be taken once a complaint is received.

Shahukat Niazi, a Labour Department director, says the Punjab government is very serious in discouraging employment of child labour. That is why, he says, in addition to implementing the relevant laws and punishing the violators, they are raising awareness about the issue and trying to bring in behavioural change in the society. He adds that for this purpose they hold discussions with employers, worker federations, organisations working for labour rights and child rights etc and produce and disseminate printed and audio visual material among targeted groups.

Ume Laila Azhar, the HomeNet Pakistan executive director, says the best way to discourage employment of girl children is by introducing a living wage rather than minimum age for workers. By living wage, she says, one means a wage that is enough to cover basic needs of a family and maintain a defined lifestyle. When the income of a worker is meager, she says the children, especially the girls, are engaged in work to supplement it.

Azhar says this is especially the case in piece rate work where wages are not fixed and workers are paid according to the quantity of work done. In order to increase their income, workers then engage their children to inflate the volume of work. If the wages are adequate, there will be no need to engage children, including underage girls, she concludes.

The author is a staffer   and can be contacted at shahzada.irfan@gmail.com