BLOG: Don't look away from child labour

Growing up, I cannot remember a time when I did not see a child working as a domestic servant. Child labour is not new to Pakistan. It has been amongst us for a very long time. Yet, strangely, the uproar can only be heard when the media takes it up. Last month, a 10-year-old girl, working as a maid at the house of a judge, was battered and bruised after a broom went missing. Images of her burnt hands and swollen face went viral. For that brief moment, we were forced to see a reality we would otherwise ignore.

Most people who employ underage workers insist that children do a better job looking after other children. The logic is warped and cruel. In reality, young workers are underpaid, undernourished, exploited and often treated cruelly. The money, they earn, is passed onto their parents who either desperately need the finances or have to repay debts.

Does anyone expect a child, of maybe five, to be aware of his/her labour rights? Pause for a second and consider what kind of a person your child will grow up to be if he/she is allowed to boss around another child.

It is unfair to treat a young person as an adult. What is even more heartbreaking is when you come across a girl, from a less privileged background, sitting in an upscale restaurant silently looking on as her employers dine.

How do you explain to a seven-year-old child why she is a servant? Or why she eats from a separate plate? Or why she is not allowed to sit on the dining table with the rest of the family? Or why she doesn’t get up every morning to go to school?

How do you explain to a child why he/she is treated as a lesser human being?

Outside homes, children are employed as labourers at roadside eateries, at repair shops, and grocery stores. Regrettably, the Urdu word ‘chotay’ has become an acceptable part of our society. The term is used to refer to an underage person. According to recent statistics and reports, there has been an uptick in the number of domestic servants in the last 30 years in Pakistan due to a robust growth of the middle-class. Pakistan has raft of laws that protect the rights of domestic servants and labourers. Yet, none are implemented.

These days, social media, as well as conventional media is doing its bit in creating awareness about issues previously considered taboo. But more needs to be said, more need to understand, and more need to be angry. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for looking the other way when a child is forced to work.

Absa Komal is a news anchor for Geo Television Network.