LAHORE: The government and civil society agreed to jointly push for legislative reform to outlaw child domestic labour in Punjab by amending the child protection law.

This was finalised in the first meeting of the Provincial Coordination Forum, jointly established by Search for Justice and National Commission for Human Rights, Punjab. The forum was established to review the current legal and administrative framework for dealing with the issues of child domestic labour in Punjab and to recommend legislative and administrative measures to the provincial government to effectively prohibit the practice.

The speakers were of the view that since the enactment of The Punjab Domestic Workers Act in 2019, not even a single case has been registered against anyone over the contravention of Section 3 of the law.From 2019-22, the government has been unable to establish clear mechanisms to receive complaints if someone employed a child under 15 years of age in accordance with the domestic workers law. This was evident to establish that there was a dire need to review the legal instruments with primary consideration to secure best interest of the child.

Syed Migdad Mehdi, a legal expert on child rights, shared that the legislatures and executives must see the issue through the lense of child protection and not labour. In the current legal environment, the police registered a first information report under Section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code where a child domestic labourer faced physical violence by their employers.

In that case, despite all the efforts by the police, Child Protection and Welfare Bureau and civil society organisations, a culprit immediately got relief as the offence `cruelty to child` was bailable and compound-able. Such an offence must be non-bailable and non-compoundable for setting deterrence through the law.

Nadeem Ashraf, a member/commissioner of the National Commission for Human Rights (Punjab), highlighted the need to strengthen interdepartmental coordination among relevant government departments and civil society organisations for a robust and ef ficient response to rescue and recover child domestic labourers, victims of violence and abuse.

Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Chairperson Sarah Ahmad endorsed the suggestion to bring the issue of child domestic labour under the purview of `The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act`. She mentioned that the bureau would initiate drafting of an amendment that would be introduced in the assembly after consultations with relevant stakeholders, including government, domestic workers union, civil society organisation and parliamentarians.