Daily Jang:

Punjab's war against child labor

The morality of a society can be gauged from the treatment of women, old men and children.
Children are the architects of the future, so their physical, emotional and psychological well-
being should be high on the government's agenda. This obligation is also confirmed by the
religious precepts and the constitution of Pakistan. It is unfortunate that previous
governments have been indifferent to this issue and the issue of children's rights has not
received the attention it deserved. The fact that Pakistan is one of the countries where the rate
of out-of-school children is very high is a slap in the face to us and at the same time a reason
for the rapid pace of reforms in this regard.
We have started a mission to eradicate child labor in Punjab province. I am determined that I
will not rest until the last child who is a victim of the heinous act of child labor enters school.
No one can be allowed to pledge the future of the nation. Providing education to children is a
goal and a sacred responsibility and for this purpose my government has allocated millions of
dollars.
Let me say very clearly that the leadership is very strong in its commitment to the elimination
of child labor and the child rights agenda in the country. Consistent with our position on the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Pakistan and GSP Plus, my
Government has initiated a comprehensive roadmap covering legal and political reforms,
including the curse of child labor. Will be eliminated.
The Cabinet has approved a ban on child labor in Kabul in 2015, which will prohibit child
labor under the age of 15. This is in accordance with the EL Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Kiln kilns represent the perennial sector of
child labor. The Punjab government had conducted a survey last year to find out the number
of out-of-school children, according to which the number of out-of-school children in 6,000
kilns was 23,642.
Punjab: After the enactment of the Child Labor Ordinance 2016, due to enrolment campaign,
the enrolment of kiln workers and children in schools has increased by 90%. The main
advantage of this ordinance is that it will be responsible for the incidence of child labor in
kilns.

Till January 31, 3 raids will be carried out in the whole province. During these raids, 3 cases
were registered against the kiln owners for employing children. 2 managers and owners were
arrested.
Assistance packages have also been provided for kiln parents to ensure the implementation of
anti-child labor laws. Under this package, free uniforms, books, school bags, shoes, one
thousand monthly stipend for the student while 5 thousand monthly stipend for each family
for enrolling their children and 5 thousand annual stipend for parents for keeping their
children in school. Will be given
The Punjab government has started under ride based inspection in all industrial estates. In the
last three months, six inspections have been conducted in which four cases have been
identified as violations of the Child Labor Act and legal action has been initiated against the
violators.
I believe that complex and socio-economic problems and poverty are a major cause of child
labor. As well as developing policies for social protection, measures such as free education,
skill training and decent employment assistance are also essential. My government has taken
impractical measures on these fronts.
The Social Protection Authority has begun the process of providing direct cash assistance to
such groups. Access to Education, Pakistan is working hard for free access to basic education
under the Constitution. Admissions and school attendance records are checked regularly after
two months.
Skills Training, The Punjab Government has provided vocational training to 500,000 youth of
Punjab so far so that they can get better employment opportunities.
Excellent work, the Punjab government is pursuing plans to create good jobs under the
Growth Strategy Framework, which aims to encourage parents to encourage their children to
pursue education instead of sacrificing their child labor. I believe that raising awareness about
the rights of children is a basic requirement for eradicating the scourge of child labor from the
society. The media has to determine its role in this regard. There is a need for the public and
private sectors to work together on a common agenda to save the country from the scourge of
child labor and to educate this deprived section of the society. I have no doubt that with full
political commitment we can meet the biggest challenge.

Dawn:
PROMISED a good life, to be ‘treated as family’, and given wholesome meals, decent wages
and access to education, the reality for many millions of domestic child workers in Pakistan is
just the opposite.
Domestic servitude puts children’s well-being at risk. They are made to work from sunrise to
sunset, fed leftovers, allowed little rest and are locked up and brutally beaten.
Earlier in May, eight-year-old Zohra Shah’s employers allegedly beat her up so badly that she
died of her injuries for releasing the household’s prized parrots from a cage. In 2019, a 16-
year-old domestic worker Uzma Bibi was brutally tortured and murdered for helping herself
to a small piece of meat. In 2018, 10-year old Tayyaba’s bruised face was all over social
media.
While not all child domestic workers are treated as severely, the ILO considers domestic
work hazardous. It exposes children to violence, abuse, sexual abuse and long hours of work
while denying them access to healthcare and education.
It is illegal to employ children under 18 in factories and other service industries, but except
for Punjab there is no law banning them from working inside homes. And thus this shroud of
invisibility provides the perfect impunity to employers to perpetrate violence till the time a
case like Zohra Shah’s surfaces.
Then the entire country goes into some kind of collective retribution. Social media highlights
abuse by employers, hashtags call for justice for the victim or survivor; the police get into
action and arrest the alleged perpetrators; mainstream electronic media flash ‘breaking news’;
newspapers publish editorials; and Pakistani legislators, celebrities and influencers send
messages with sentiments ranging from shock and anger to anguish. Often this outrage
subsides as quickly as it erupts. Zohra Shah was forgotten even before she was quietly buried
in her village of Muzaffargarh. Few seem interested in following up on the pressure the
parents of such children often face from employers to quash the case or keep quiet in
exchange for ‘hush’ money.
However, things seem to be looking up this time around. While the adults have been dilly-
dallying for years over this issue, this time the youth of Pakistan have taken it upon
themselves to end the scourge.
The campaign to end child domestic labour, initiated by Idare-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) last
month may have found traction with 20 rights-based Pakistani organisations, but it is the
youth who seem to be this campaign’s backbone. Aged between 10 to 18 and belonging to all
strata and school systems from across the country, they have stepped in to end what is so
normalised in Pakistani society and which one young student terms as nothing but ‘child
abuse’.
But along with bringing about a mindset change, it is time to look at how the country’s law is
protecting its children.
For instance, there is some confusion in the statute book that needs to be cleared. Section
328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code gives the child ample protection, Section 89 of the same
PPC allows parents, guardians and teachers to use corporal punishment in “good faith”.
While good laws need stricter implementation, certain existing ones need amendments.
According to Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari, the 1991 Employment of Children
Act needs to be amended to include child domestic labour among the list of proscribed jobs
considered hazardous and banned for children under 14.
The ITA wants to make it even more watertight by proposing a constitutional amendment in
Article 11(3) prohibiting all children under 16 from engaging in any form of labour, in any
capacity. Those between the ages of 16 and 18 may work, but only in non-hazardous
occupations, with well-defined codes of working conditions, and hours and wages stipulated
in a written contract.
But even before all the tweaking of law is carried out, the contradictions within the country’s
Constitution and the Penal Code about the legal age of a child needs to be addressed. Article
25A of the Constitution that makes the state responsible to provide free and compulsory
education terms a child to be anywhere between the ages of five to 16 years; Article 11
disallows slavery, forced labour, human trafficking and hazardous employment for children
under the age of 14.
Presently, the only province that prohibits child domestic labour is Punjab with its Punjab
Domestic Workers Act, 2019. But campaigners say it is weak in addressing child domestic
labour as it only prohibits children under 15 from being employed and the violators get away
as neither punishment nor fine are tough enough. Further, the violators cannot be arrested by
police. It is time other provinces followed suit while the legal loopholes that exist in the
Punjab law must be closed.
While laws will be crafted, in the end it is society itself that can end this practice by
disabusing itself of the notion that it is doing poor families a good turn by hiring their
children.
Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2020