FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-XXX-2017
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
On 12 June 2017, Pakistan’s print and electronic media was abuzz
with the murder of a teenager serving a politically influential family
in Lahore. Master Akther was reportedly tortured to death by his
employer Fauzia, who is the daughter of provincial legislator Ms. Shah
Jahan, belonging to the ruling party, PML-N.
According to Lahore’s Akbari Mandi police station, Akhter’s
9-year-old sister Attiya was also beaten and tortured by Shah Jahan
and her daughter. The brother and sister duo used to work at Ms. Shah
Jahan’s house, and were not allowed to meet their parents.
According to police officers investigating the case, Fauzia hit
17-year-old Akhter with a stick, which proved fatal. Fauzia and her
family meanwhile, claim that Akhter’s death was due to consuming
something poisonous.
This is the third reported case of child domestic abuse in Pakistan
this year, although many cases go unreported. A judge and his wife
were charged earlier this year for torturing their child servant. The
case is pending in court at present, with the girl’s parents
agreeing to an out of court settlement.
The issue of hiring children domestic helpers lies at the core of
Pakistan’s class struggle: the widening wage gap has made it
impossible for many citizens living below the poverty line to remain
financially aloft, forcing them to send their children to work.
According to the International Labour Organization’s 2014 report,
Pakistan has the third largest child workforce in the world, even as
other countries are seeing a decline in underage workers. Furthermore,
child domestic labour is considered the ‘worst’ form of child
labour, where children are subjected to physical and mental torture
within the homes and hidden from society. Child domestic labour is
also paid the least with the longest working hours. Children usually
move to their employer’s home and have no contact with their own
families for months.
According to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child
(SPARC), violence against domestic child workers is on the increase;
between January 2010 and December 2014, 47 cases of violence against
child domestic workers were reported in different parts of the
country, while as many as 24 children lost their lives from violence
committed by their employers. The Institute of Social Justice reported
29 child house workers’ deaths from torture between 2011 and 2015.
In 2013, 13 children died as a result of violence at their work place,
in addition to 21 cases of physical torture by employers.
There are no official statistics available on the number of underage
domestic helpers currently employed or economically active in the
country. The last National Child Labour Survey was conducted in 1996
which estimated the number to be at 3.3 million. The only statistics
available are from SPRC; according to the organization’s 2015 annual
report, there are 264,000 underage domestic workers confronting cruel
and unsafe working environments.
Given the lack of legislation penalizing employment of underage
domestic helpers, influential employers take advantage of poverty, and
get away even with murder, by paying the aggrieved family ‘hush
money’. The practice of paying ‘hush money’ as compensation is
particularly prevalent in Punjab, where most cases of abuse occur.
Urban areas are particularly notorious for the practice.
Local laws are insufficient and redundant to deal with the menace of
child domestic labour. Domestic labour is mentioned in only two
legislations, the Provincial Employees Social Security Ordinance 1965
(PESSO), and the Minimum Wage Ordinance 1961. Neither of these mention
child workers, nor do they have provisions protecting them. Meanwhile,
the Employment of Children Act 1991 does not include domestic labour
as one of the banned occupations.
Pakistan has also not signed the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers
(2011) which could have had the most impact on the ground. It calls
for comprehensively banning child labour in the domestic sector and
for setting up of a minimum age for domestic workers consistent with
the ILO conventions on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and
Work, and the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
It is important for Pakistan to carry out a serious and comprehensive
survey to find out the exact magnitude of its child labour problem.
Implementation of national laws, treaties and conventions to stop
child labour, absolutely and completely, is a must.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls for the prosecution of
assembly member Ms. Shah Jahan and her daughter Fauzia, for the death
of Akhter and for hiring a child helper. Furthermore, the government
should prevent all out-of-court settlements in cases of domestic
worker abuse. There should be zero tolerance against forced child
labour and a national policy against it. A policy regarding their
minimum wages and access to social protection must also be
implemented. The government should ensure the inclusion of the an
informal sector representative in the tripartite mechanism and make
amendments in the labour and child labour inspection mechanism for
adherence to the existing laws, child protection laws, and the Punjab
Employment of Children (Amendment) Act, 2011.
# # #
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) works towards the radical
rethinking and fundamental redesigning of justice institutions in
order to protect and promote human rights in Asia. Established in
1984, the Hong Kong based organisation is a Laureate of the Right
Livelihood Award, 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment