Online Session on Demand for new legislation against Child Domestic labour
Islamabad -20 June 2020: Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC) organized an online “Debate on Elimination of all the forms of Child Labour” on Saturday, June 20, 2020.
Child rights activists urged the federal and provincial governments for the enactment of new laws against child domestic labour and lamented the sorry state of children stuck in a life of drudgery in countless homes across the country.
Key Messages:
| 1 |
- Pakistani society downplays the seriousness of child domestic work.
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| 2 |
Peoplekeep employing children as maids, servants and helpers at home and work because they are cheap labour compared to hiring adults. |
| 3 |
Due to poverty, the marginalized households forced to send their children, mainly girls to work. |
| 4 |
Sharp increase in cases of abuse surfacing against child domestic workers is a matter of great concern. |
| 5 |
Pakistan acknowledges forced labour, slavery and external trafficking in documents but it has not been able to take any administrative measures to ban Child Domestic Labour. |
| 6 |
There must be complete ban on hiring children as domestic help. |
| 7 |
Child Domestic Labour should be added in the list of hazardous occupations under ECA1991. |
| 8 |
The government needs to take responsibility and enact exclusive laws at federal and provincial level for the prohibition of Child Domestic Labour. |
| 9 |
The adult labourers should also be brought in government’s supporting schemes to ensure that they aren’t forced to send their children to work. |
| 10 |
There is no legislation to stop child domestic work in Pakistan. |
| 11 |
Punjab Domestic worker act 2019 is not serving the purpose to stop the domestic work. |
Coverage details:
English
Urdu
Urdu Newspapers Coverage
Adherence:
All key messages given during the webinar were published by newspapers in their reports. English and Urdu newspapers published detailed stories covering all the points.
Learnings:
Following learnings have been achieved by organizing this session:
- This session provided proved an effective way to engage civil society media during the lockdown situation.
- The session went longer than the scheduled time. Many participants left after the hour mark due to their other commitments. Forfuture sessions, timing should be kept in consideration to ensure that all participants stay till the end.
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