This month, news of 13-year-old girl-child domestic worker Rizwana being brutally tortured by an Islamabad-based civil judge's wife shocked the conscience of the nation. Consequently, #JusticeForRizwana started trending on social media.
The media reported the child's suffering in all of its gory details; the strangulation marks found on her neck, the broken tooth and ribs, her face and eyes swollen, and how a 13-year-old child had been starved for days by her employers.
But the case lodged against the judge's wife did not even mention 'torture'. The rest of the charges were watered down to mere 'criminal intimidation' and wrongful confinement that carry far softer punishments.
READ MORE: Lawmaker Calls For Action To Curb Incidents Of Torture On Domestic Workers
The practice of employing domestic workers is rampant throughout the country and is particularly seen as an indispensable 'facility' by the country's elite. Wealthy urban households employ a staff of housemaids, drivers, cooks, cleaners and other domestic help 'to keep the house running'. The manner in which this employment relationship is practised is nothing short of exploitative.
Domestic workers find themselves extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse owing to the fact that their work has remained unregulated by state law for decades
Domestic workers, who are commonly addressed as 'Naukar' (meaning servants, but the word's modern-day connotation is closer to 'slaves' than 'servants') by their employers, mostly hail from poor rural areas of the country. Domestic workers find themselves extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse owing to the fact that their work has remained unregulated by state law for decades.
The public/private dichotomy around which much of the understanding of legal rights is centred, operates to the disadvantage of domestic workers. It renders their work invisible to the public eye, and hence, their services remain highly undervalued, despite the fact that their employers find these services indispensable. There are no formal contracts detailing the terms of employment. The working hours are unregulated. There is no entitlement to paid leave, maternity benefits nor social security. In most cases, domestic workers are paid less than the national minimum wage.
The unregulated nature of the domestic workers' profession then becomes a fertile ground for many other related menaces. According to a 2012 International Labour Organization (ILO) study, the number of children employed as domestic workers had reached 12 million. Most of these child domestic workers are girls, as young as 7-8 years of age. The lived experiences of these children suggest that they are not merely statistics that we are talking about; These are stories of actual pain and suffering, turning a blind eye to which would be nothing short of complicity.
There are three vectors of inequality that one can glean from these reports; class-based inequality, gender-based violence and the extent to which children are prone to such abuse
In 2020, a 7-year-old girl child, Zohra Bibi, was killed by her employers for freeing a bird from its cage. Within a few weeks, news emerged of an 8-year-old girl called Sana who was subjected to severe torture by her employers in Wapda Town, Lahore, for allegedly drinking milk from her employers' glass.
There are three vectors of inequality that one can glean from these reports; class-based inequality, gender-based violence and the extent to which children are prone to such abuse. The identity of the perpetrators of these crimes towards child domestic workers is particularly instructive.
In 2018, news of the 10-year-old Tayyaba, who had been tortured by a sessions judge and his wife over a missing broom, caused a nationwide furore. Her hand was burnt, she was subjected to wrongful confinement and was beaten severely with a ladle.
READ MORE: Children And Labour At The Bachat Bazaar
In 2017, a teenage minor Akhtar Hussain was severely beaten and tortured by his employers before he had been killed. His employer was a Member of Parliament belonging to the ruling party of the time. The same Member of Parliament was later acquitted by the courts following a 'compromise deal' having been reached between the murderers and the parents of Akhtar Hussain.
Reaching such compromise deals is a common practice within the Pakistani legal system since these are deemed to be private matters between the families rather than an offence against the state. There are many more cases, a huge majority of which remain unreported.
Punjab's law permits the employment of children aged 15-18 as domestic workers, presuming that children of those ages are not as vulnerable to exploitation
In 2018, a landmark ruling by the Lahore High Court directed the Punjab government to introduce a law on domestic workers. Subsequently, the Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2019 was enacted by the Punjab Assembly. The Act prohibits the employment of children aged less than 15 as domestic workers. It specifies 8 hours as the maximum daily working duration while also prohibiting employers from paying less than the minimum wage. Quite significantly, the Act entitles domestic workers to paid annual leaves, maternity benefits, sickness benefits and social security. The Act also states that the use of the word 'servants' is prohibited, and employees shall be addressed as 'domestic workers'.
Although the Act appears to be a considerable improvement over the previous lack of legal protection for domestic workers, there is, unfortunately, very little to celebrate in practice.
First, the Act permits the employment of children aged 15-18 as domestic workers, presuming that children of those ages are not as vulnerable to exploitation. However, this is a flawed presumption, as highlighted in Uzma Bibi's case. In 2019, 16-year-old Uzma Bibi was found dead, dumped in a canal by a wealthy Lahore-based family that had employed her for a mere Rs4,000 per month. She had been killed by her employers following blows to the head with a kitchen utensil. To reiterate, the girl was 16 years old, the age at which the 2019 Act deems it acceptable for children to be employed. Hence, this aspect of the Act is deeply regrettable.
The Act also misses out on the opportunity of defining the safety and health standards expected of an employer. Even more worryingly, despite the Act requiring Letters of Employment to be drawn up at the time of a domestic worker's employment, there are no enforcement mechanisms or penalties for ensuring the same.
It is only when we address the underlying reasons rather than mere 'symptoms' could there be any lasting impact
Similar laws have been enacted in the Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh, but these suffer from the same shortcomings of lack of effective enforcement mechanisms, which means that despite some advances having been made theoretically, domestic workers' profession is still left unregulated, leaving them at the mercy of their rich and extremely influential employers.
READ MORE: Long Road To Eradicating Child And Bonded Labour In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Given the many ills that domestic workers are subjected to, it is only when we address the underlying reasons rather than mere 'symptoms' could there be any lasting impact. For example, providing free and compulsory primary education to children in accordance with the state's constitutional obligations and improving the economic mobility of the poorest of the Pakistani population could help address the varied causes which are at the heart of an ever-growing trend of class 'apartheid'.
Civil society actors and members of the legal profession need to unite for various causes. Public Interest Litigation in the courts could be a useful way of effecting the desired legal reforms. For example, in 2021, the Senate drafted a Domestic Violence Bill for the Islamabad Capital Territory, which under pressure from the right wing, had been prevented from coming into force, leaving it at the mercy of the unelected Council of Islamic Ideology. The Domestic Violence Bill could have provided effective legal remedies for many problems emanating from domestic servitude and abusive practices within the private sphere. Such undemocratic moves need to be challenged in the courts on the grounds of unconstitutionality.
Most importantly, promoting human rights awareness through education could be an immensely powerful tool to change the social outlook towards modern slavery practices, which have become deeply entrenched and hence, normalised in our everyday lives.
READ MORE: Innocent Lives In The Clutches Of Child Labour
Education as a platform to mobilise the community in seeking a rights-based society devoid of slavery and exploitation ought to be our aim because to remain silent in the face of injustice is equivalent to being an enabler of such injustices. It is about time that we ask ourselves; which side of history do we want to be on? Do we want to stand up for what is right and just, or do we wish to be complicit in one of the worst human rights violations? I expect we can safely agree that we ought to choose the former.