SAVING FROM SAVIOR SYNDROME OF THE PRIVILEGED

actually depriving the child of her or his basic human rights as they are coerced into employment The child is forced to leave home/community/village, usually deprived of education, and are frequently placed in an exploitative environment of the benefactor?s ownership and servitude And, almost all the time such children are not given wages, as payment is often made to parents or guardians A classic exampleof humantrafficking

Pakistan has ratified, adopted, launched as well as passed dozens of policies, conventions, ordinances, principles and lawsrelated to child labor FromratifyingILO?sForced Labor Convention in 1957 to the issuance of Notification Banning Child Domestic Labor and the passing of Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act in 2020,the country doeshave aplethoraof regulations Thecountry isalsoparty totheUN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in PersonsEspecially Women andChildren To alayperson,this may suggest a somewhat coherent framework protecting thePakistani childfromtheravagesof child labor,abuseand trafficking Thesituationontheground,however,differs!

Experts and lawyers either complain numerous challenges as far as laws are concerned starting with ineffective policies or weak enforcement to lack of trainings and sensitivity especially handlingtheissueof trafficking.

Talkingabout lawsand policies,Miqdad Naqvi,achild rights lawyer said:?We have some toothless laws in some provinces like in (the province of) Punjab The Domestic WorkersAct 2019 waspassed to regulatedomesticworkers and it prohibited domestic work by children under 15 years

In Islamabad Capital Territory, Domestic Workers Act was passed in 2022 prohibiting entry of children in Domestic work till 16 years of age And in case of any violation, (perpetratorsare)only fined (With the)exception (of)where the child is under 12 (years of age) then (there is) only one month punishment It's not a child labor issue but a child protection issue Our child protection laws don't cover it This is why we demand to outlaw Child Domestic Labor as (modern day) slavery and to see it under a child protection lens; not under alabor regime Furthermore,even asalabor issue, labor inspectors have never been able to take cognizance of incidents in private houses but only commercial establishments, so there are multiple related issuesof it?

Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Child, Ayesha Raza Farooq also lamented about weak enforcement of the law that not only criminalize labor trafficking but also child domestic labor (full interview ahead).

Across the Global South and by extension South Asia, the pandemic of Child Domestic Labor and exploitation can be attributed to various? already known and acknowledged ? factors from abject poverty, lack of or half-baked social protection policies, socio-economic status and ethnicity/race as well as migration; among other things Deepening the issue are the challenges of (and not limited to) the vastly accepted practice of rural to urban child migration as well as proper implementation of regulations due to national minimum age or executing it in private households Then again,policy isanother areathat needsto belookedintodeeply

Talking about internal or national level human trafficking,Miqdad Naqvi said: ?The issue of internal child traffickingwherebyachild istrafficked without his/her own consent to a family as domestic help is a serious issue. In thiscase,thechilddoesnot receiveany remuneration,but it is the adults who receive the payment on their behalf such as the parents of the child etc.During the hearing of Tayyaba Torture case in 2017, the issue of internal traffickingof minorswasalso highlighted just likeit isbeing highlighted now in Rizwana?s case. But unfortunately, no specific laws to address or recognize this issue as an internal child trafficking issue have yet been made. However, existing penal code and constitutional provisions on fundamental rights as well as the international obligations of Pakistan vis a vis child rights convention all make a good case to argue for the courts to take a child protectionlensontheseissues.

According to a US State Department2023 Trafficking in PersonsReport:Pakistan:?Law enforcement effortsagainst labor trafficking remained inadequate compared to the scale of the problem and for a fourth year,the government did not take adequate action against credible reports of official complicity in trafficking; victim protection services, especially shelter, remained inadequate; and inspection efforts continued to be insufficient to effectively enforce labor laws?

Globally recognized Human Rights Advocate Mandy Sanghera opined: ?We know that modern day slavery and child trafficking are global pandemics and if you look at India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, children are forced into labor,anywherefromfactoriesto households Thenumbers are really shocking and unacceptable And sadly we have seen that after the COVID19 pandemic, there has been an increase because there is a need for cheaper labor, goods and services People will exploit and use people We do need toraiseawarenessandwork together toweed out this systemicproblem?

Taking stock of the situation in Pakistan as a case study, it boils down to the subject of child protection Senior Policy Advisor on governance, gender, GBV, child marriage and former UNDPGender Advisor,FauziaYazdani commented: ?There have been many laws and policies that have been

Image by Timon Studler on Unsplash

made We also have to realize that Pakistan is an over-legislated country so (much so) that we always say that there are many laws. The thing to be seen is that are such laws complimentary?Aretheselawscomplimenting each other towards our unified goals of reducingchild trafficking,child labor and other child rights?challenges? Or are they actually creating more loopholes that can be exploited by others?Implementation hasalso been weak and that needsto be contextualized within the larger rule of law ambit. But I think most importantly, where is a designated ministry or division which is focusing on child rights?Post 18th amendment child rights as a subject was devolvedtotheprovinces?

She added: ?At federal level, it is part of the ministry of human rights administratively When it comes to policy, programming, all things that can influence and support implementation of law,wehavenever seen the ministry of humanrightstakingalead onit Yes making documentations on National Action Plan or laws; most of the time they are donor-driven So donorscome,they do it,build thecapacity,talk about creatinglaw,then they are done and that?s about it In any case, what the ministry of human rights does is only applicablefor (thecapital city of)Islamabad So where is that national, strategic framework or guidance where all provinces have signed on that yeswewill contribute?If thereisone,how is it being measured? I don? t know of one! When it comestoprovinces,childright isasub, sub of some department and again it faces the same thing You have to look at the human rights policy If they say it is part of human rights then you have to look at the human rights policy of the four provincesIt has one pageon child rights! In Punjab for exampleand in my last research; what I saw was who was making the child rights protection mechanism It wasthe planningdivision Where isthe child protection bureau in Punjab anchored and under which department? What can the child protection department do?Can it stop child labor?Look at the laws under which all these commissionsarebeinggoverned So its way out of their mandate Each provincial commission have their own laws which are also not uniform. It does not have any consistency or uniformity amongtheprovinces?

In a country where politico-economic destabilization isin effect,where even the rule of law is questionable; the fates of country?s innocent ? the children ? hang in the balance True, it is a tight-rope to walk on but it can bewalkedon!In times like these, action means banding and working together from raising awareness, to creating a uniform, consistent, coherent and inclusive policy on a national level asa blueprint to also be transferred and regionalized/provincialized in order to protect the child and upholding her or hisrights A cohesive social protection plan of action perhaps? It is also important to create a narrative through media channels and other societal platforms that child and adolescent labor should beunderstood as human trafficking and that it certainly falls out of the ambit of family privacy Rigorously continuous trainings of sensitization of security and protection agencies, education is key to face these debilitating challenges in addition to including more women and representatives of marginalized communities within these agencies Lastly, a conversation around the savior syndrome of the privileged should be initiated, especially in context of those in poverty, ignorance, compulsions and economic burden Such ideas of being benefactors of the poor should be shunned and rejected as these do not break the cycle of poverty but in fact amplify it manifold To reiterate:it isa tight-ropetowalkonbut it canbewalked on!

Chairperson

National Commission on the Rightsof Child, Pakistan (NCRC), Ayesha Raza Farooq speakswith Ananke?sEditor, Sabin Muzaffar about child labor in modern day slavery and human trafficking contexts.