Focus on exploitation of domestic workers

Sumaira works from six each morning till past midnight. Her work includes peeling vegetables, washing dishes, washing clothes, scrubbing floors, babysitting, washing nappies and dusting the seven bedroom home in a well-off residential area in the western Pakistan city of Lahore. For her work, which begins when she serves tea at dawn to the oldest member of the nine-member household, known to her as "Baji" (older sister), Sumaira receives no pay. Her employers claim that a year ago she stole a gold necklace, several gold bangles and a small locket, lying in a drawer. Sumaira fervently denies the allegation, but the family says her wages, a mere US $18 a month, will be cut until the value of the jewellery is recovered. And with a supposed value of over $500, the 15-year-old must work for nearly two and a half years before she is clear. The levelling of theft charges against domestic workers, and then "cutting" pay to recover them, is becoming increasingly common in Pakistan. Activists working for the rights of domestic labourers, who are not covered by any legislation, maintain that this is simply a means to exploit them as slaves. "There are more and more indications that this is another form of bonded labour, or slavery," Fatima Yazdani, a research assistant at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IRIN in Lahore. Domestic servants, many of them women and children, are at times physically prevented from leaving until such "debts" are paid. Moreover, they lack access to any agency that could help them, with police generally unsympathetic given their lack of influence or wealth. Rubina Jamil, chairwoman of the Working Women's Organisation (WWO), backs these assertions. Her group, working with female labourers, has uncovered numerous cases of abuse. She also points out that "domestic servants get low wages, are not entitled to weekly holidays or breaks, have no job security, no medical cover and no entitlement to overtime". And while the number of those working as domestic labourers, by its nature an "invisible" form of work, remains largely unknown, of the estimated eight million child workers in Pakistan, 6.7 percent are female domestic workers. As poverty levels rise, with nearly 35 percent of the population now reportedly living below the poverty line, the number of male children working in homes has also risen over the past two years, since families are increasingly forced to send children out to perform menial work. The situation is troubling. In some cases, domestic labour has cost workers their lives. In 2001, a case was reported from the middle-class locality of Mughulpura in Lahore in which a six-year-old boy working as domestic help was battered to death by his employer. The woman had become enraged after the child returned late to the house after going out to use a toilet. His body was then dumped by the woman and her husband under a rubbish heap, and discovered only accidentally. A case was registered against the couple, with a verdict still pending. In 2002, in Lahore, another small boy who ran away from the home of his employers in the posh Defence area, claimed he had been tortured and enslaved. Marks on his body backed the claims. No action was taken against his employers. Meanwhile, this year alone, at least six cases have been reported nationwide of young female workers being raped. In one case in Multan, in May, the victim, Kinza, 14, was apparently murdered after the assault. Each year at least as many similar cases come forward, while many others go unreported, with families of the victims coerced into silence. The fate of Christian domestic workers can be particularly harrowing. According to many activists, often treated as "lesser citizens" on the basis of their faith, Christians are more vulnerable to charges of theft or other crime. In August 2003, Samuel Masih, 19, hanged himself at the district jail in Lahore, to escape police torture. After a detailed investigation, the Justice and Peace Commission, an NGO working for the rights of minorities, found that Samuel had been falsely charged with robbery by his employer when he sought payment for domestic work, and then tortured by police who arrested him on the employer's complaint. In another case reported from the city of Faisalabad, a teenage Christian female worker was reportedly dragged into the family living room and tortured by her employers as images from Iraq were displayed on the television screen. Her employers told her that, as a Christian, she would have to "pay for the crimes committed against Muslims". At a conference in Karachi on the plight of domestic workers in September 2003, Nilofer Bakhtiar, the adviser to the prime minister for women's development, noted that up to 93 percent of female domestic workers faced harassment, 45 percent had been mentally tortured, 35 percent physically abused and 25 percent sexually assaulted. Cases in which domestic workers have been forced to work up to 16 hours a day, given grossly inadequate food and forced to sleep either outdoors or in rooms without fans, toilets or other facilities, even at the height of summer, are not unusual. "Clearly this situation needs to be checked, but where is the official will to do this?" I.A. Rehman, the director of HRCP, asked IRIN. Rubina Jamil of the WWO added, "Domestic workers face many kinds of problems. There is an urgent need for legislation to protect them." Her organisation has also recommended the codification of domestic workers, fixation of minimum wages, social security cover, right to leave and other basic rights as preliminary steps to improve the situation of domestic workers. In June this year, the Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR), at a conference in Islamabad, proposed a new law on child domestic workers. "This is needed as a step forward and must be taken to improve the situation," Riaz Fatyana, chairman of the PCHR, said. Others too, from both official and non-official platforms, have demanded amendments to existing labour laws that would allow all domestic workers to be covered. However, the problems of enforcing such laws, even if they are put in place, are likely to prove immense - given the fact that domestic labour occurs almost entirely within the walls of private homes. Solutions then, are not easy. However, if the situation of the thousands of domestic workers in the country is to improve, action will need to be taken. "Where there is a will, there is a way. Nothing is impossible," Rehman stressed. Whether that missing will can be found, however, remains to be seen.