Pakistan's 10-year-old child maid - No minor offence

By Waqar Gillani

The case of the 10-year-old child maid allegedly abused in the house of a district sessions judge has created an uproar that must not be allowed to fade.

On December 28, a resident of Street 12 in Islamabad’s Sector I-8/1 called the police to report a case of domestic violence on a minor girl in the house of an additional district and sessions judge. The police, along with a legal team of the government-owned Crisis Centre for Women, reached the neighbourhood but failed to recover the victim. The judge’s wife denied the presence of an under-aged domestic worker in her house.

Next day, the police and members of the Crisis Centre, revisited the judge’s house and succeeded in recovering the 10-year-old maid.

The girl was produced before a local female magistrate, Assistant Commissioner Nisha Ishtiaq, who recorded the girl’s statement and ordered a medical check-up at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

However, according to an official of the Crisis Centre, a PIMS report, that made no mention of visible marks and bruises on the girl’s body and face, was “manipulated” because the accused person happens to be a serving judge in the city. The female magistrate reordered the girl’s medical check-up but within that period the team of the centre received a threatening phone call from another serving additional sessions judge, directing the centre to produce the girl before him immediately.

The team received the call after the court had adjourned for the day. Yet, the sessions court judge summoned the father of the child and forced a compromise between the girl’s father and the accused judge.

By this time the Islamabad High Court had taken notice of the action, and the news was being aired on tv.

The residents of Street No 12 say the child maid had been living with the judge’s family for over a year. They also indicate presence of more than one under-aged domestic worker in the judge’s house, and suspect the girls were frequently tortured.

According to 2015 Sparc report, there are around 264,000 under-age domestic workers in the country, often left to the mercy of employers who routinely subject them to physical and psychological torture.

According to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc), in collaboration with the Child Rights Movement (CRM), an alliance of the civil society groups on child rights issues, the family of the judge refused to cooperate with the activists and fact-finding missions.

In a statement recorded by Registrar IHC, the child maid said she was subjected to physical violence after some valuables were found missing from the house. “They beat me with a big spoon. Then Mano Baji [the judge’s wife] lit the stove and put my hands in the flames”.

The young girl also told the media that her mistress abused her every time something was not kept in its place or was not done in time.

However, the accused judge and his wife deny the charge.

For Anees Jillani, a lawyer and human rights activists with focus on child rights, the only thing surprising in this case is that the accused is a serving judge. “There is need to look at this issue seriously, and make a law to stop domestic child labour. Presently, there is no law to stop domestic child labour — or even domestic labour — and in such cases of violence someone has to prove it is bonded labour. And, there will be hardly any case because there will be no agreement on official stamp paper to prove bonded labour in the court.”

On Jan 4, Justice Saqib Nisar, the newly-appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court took suo-motu notice on the compromise between the girl’s father and the accused party.

In the police report, the accused are charged with minor and easily bailable offence of threats and wrongful confinement. The 10-year-old girl was unaware of her salary and details of this bonded labour agreement made by her father.

This is indeed common in big cities where agents supply domestic child labour from rural areas for money pledged in advance. One can get a domestic child labour for Rs20,000 to 50,000, and keep the minor at home as full-time ‘employee’, an agent working in a posh locality in Lahore tells TNS.

Article 37(a) of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ratified and signed by Pakistan, clearly states, “no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

According to annual report of 2015 of the Sparc, there are around 264,000 under-age domestic workers in the country, often left to the mercy of employers who routinely subject them to physical and psychological abuse, exploitation and violence.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) has started to probe the issue. Justice (retd) Allah Nawaz Chohan, Chairman NCHR says, “The challenge in such cases is the non-existence of laws to prevent child domestic labour.”

He adds, there is need to see whether this agreement between the father and the accused party was done under-pressure, under-influence or through offering some money. “Poverty is the mother of all crimes and this issue of marginalised section of society enslaving their children for domestic labour is linked to the socio-economic situation. There is need for a collective voice and practical steps to discuss these issues and make strong laws,” he says, continuing that his commission has a limited scope, and “we can only suggest such improvements rather than bring any practical change”.

Anees Jillani feels the official bodies working on child rights are not empowered. “Despite commitments, there is no national commission on child rights. We see serious lack of political will in making laws to stop domestic child labour because this is an issue of the majority of upper class and political and administrative elite. This type of child labour serves mutual interest of a class of society — and that is why there are no standards”.

A few years ago, an office bearer of the Lahore Bar Association and an influential lawyer of Lahore was allegedly tortured to death a child domestic worker, Shazia, who belonged to a poor Christian family. The lawyer was acquitted of the charge

A joint statement by civil society groups and members and the CRM states, “The compromise and forgiveness loophole, so expeditiously exploited by the judge and his spouse, is a convenient tool, employed mostly against the poor and downtrodden by the rich and powerful in Pakistan, as in this case.”

They have demanded from the chief justice of Pakistan that “there must be no ‘forgiveness’ and no ‘compromise’ — the State must become the girl child’s guardian and complainant in the case.”