Even the law is unable to protect child laborer

 

Even the law is unable to protect child laborer

Domestic worker children cannot say anything about the cruelty done to them because their parents are forced by poverty and even trade them for a few thousand rupees.

Bird market is the most favorite haunt of bird lovers.

In the small shops in the bird market, in the small cages connected to each other, all kinds of anxious birds keep hitting their beaks on the cage nets, maybe they will be released somehow, but they don't know, from one cage to another. The trip to the cage is their release.

These caged birds are looking for a place to fly around in their cage, but they have no wings or sky to fly.

 The hope of those who sell birds is that their bird fetches a good price. After the sale, their responsibility is over. Now, in what cage does the buyer keep this bird at their expense?

Whenever I see the pictures of an innocent young domestic worker's burnt hands with marks of torture and road wounds, the caged birds fly in my mind.

Whenever the tortured body of a child is found lying on a garbage can, the birds roam around in front of the helpless eyes, who, even in cages, become the target of an animal and mourn their helplessness on the ground. .

Who has the leisure to think that the incidents of violence against children are increasing in Pakistan, not decreasing.

Who has the leisure to think that no survey of any kind has been conducted in Pakistan since 1996 regarding child labour.

Who has the leisure to know that there is an Implementation of Children Act in this country? Who has the leisure to know that in this country the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights has passed this bill that no physical violence can be done to children anywhere.

Who has the leisure to think that due to the growing poverty and unemployment in this country, in the school age, the small hands of these children are covered with clay, and sometimes they are covered with oil. Somewhere they have a broom in their injured hands.

The incident of torture and burning of a 13-year-old domestic worker in Lahore has come to light for the first time. Even before this, some young working children were subjected to torture by being burnt with an iron.

So the incident of beating and breaking bones came to light, and somewhere they were pushed from the stairs. Sometimes stories of burning with sticks, slippers, hot tongs come to light.

Who remembers in July 2022, an 11-year-old domestic worker was tortured to death in a Defense Lahore house just because he stole food from the fridge and ate it.

These young domestic worker children are not only physically abused, but often they are also sexually abused.

Their owners have no reason to fear the law. They know that even if a case of violence is reported, the case can be ended by spending some money.

In 2019, the daughter of a member of the Punjab Assembly had tortured her 16-year-old domestic worker so much that her life was lost, but what happened was that she was the daughter of an influential woman, so what would happen if she was arrested etc. Mecca is done.

This is what happened in the case of ten-year-old Tayyaba. His injuries and blackened face also got the attention of the international media, but since the case was of a judge and his begum, finally a compromise was reached in this matter as well.

Now where that girl is, and in what condition is she, does it matter to us.

Domestic worker children cannot say anything about the cruelty done to them because their parents, forced by poverty, are traders who sell not only their bodies but also their souls for a few thousand.

These children are also imprisoned in cages like birds from which it is not easy to be released.