Unwittingly, or may be knowingly, I allowed a child of sever to work as a housemaid for me for three days. I haven't got over the shock and shame for what I did, though my friends and family console me it was not my fault, I was duped into employing the child.
Friends and family forgive anything, and mine are exceptionally forgiving. If I were to murder somebody they are likely to say it was not my fault, even if they found me holding a bloody knife, the murder weapon.
It was the mother of the child Shaheena who I had actually employed. On the first day she gave a broom to the little girl and told her to sweep the floor. I, told the child to sit as I did not want a child to do my housework. I touched my hands to my ear lobes, which is the local way of saying "God forbid I commit such a sin".
When the new maid was sweeping my room I scolded her. "How can you people allow a little child like that to work"? She turned a tearful face to me and said she was widowed three years ago and she had three "chotey chotey buchchey" of whom Shaheena was the eldest.
With her daughter helping her she was able to work in four houses and thus earn double of what she would make if she worked alone. I felt sorry and told the child, "Alright. You may sweep and dust the staircase".
The next day the child not only swept the staircase, she cleaned two bathrooms. I was reading the newspaper and did not note it was the child who was cleaning the bathrooms. I told myself I shall make sure she does not do it tomorrow. With domestics I find a direct command is more effective than criticism.
The third day, however, the mother did not come to work. The child arrived with a young woman carrying a four-month old baby. Shaheena said her mother had to accompany her aunt who was having a baby in a hospital. The young woman locum had swept two rooms when the baby started to cry. She left the work and settled down to breast-feed the baby while Shaheena completed the sweeping, then did the swabbing, dusted the furniture and cleaned the bathrooms.
It was clear by now that the woman with the baby was there in a supervisory capacity. However, it took a while for me to catch on to their scheme. At the start of every chore I would tell myself, may be now the young woman would do it, may be now, may be now. She showed no signs of getting up even though the baby in her arms had gone to sleep. In the end I angrily told Shaheena to tell her mother to come to work tomorrow.
But next day the little girl again arrived to work along with her "supervisory". I sent them packing. I was angry at myself and shaking with shock and shame. True, I was duped, but the cold fact was that I had allowed a child of seven to work. How could I have allowed a little girl to do an adult's load of chores? On the third day I had deduced from Shaheena's chatter that the "chotey chotey buchchey" was a mere sob story to appease my objection to child labour. Shaheena was the youngest, the young woman with the baby was her sister-in-law, she had two older brothers who worked in the factories in Quaidabad and a married older sister.
I still cannot get over the incident which, significantly, ended a day before World Day Against Child Labour. In my large clan no child domestic has ever been employed in any household. It is simply not done. I feel uneasy when I see a little mite sweeping and swabbing in a house where children of the same age are playing about or doing their homework. Hence a chill of horror continues to make me shiver at the thought of what I did. My family and friends may forgive me but I cannot forgive myself.
There are said to be eight to 10 million child labourers in Pakistan. Does that include children employed as domestics in the cities? During World Day Against Child Labour one hears heart-wrenching true stories about children working in brick kilns, auto garages, carpet weaving; no mention is made about children working as servants in the cities where there is a high demand for cheap household help.
The rural and urban sectors are vastly different. To eradicate the scourge of child labour a distinction needs to be made between the two sectors and action plans to be formulated according to the peculiar characteristics of the problem in each sector.
So far the government and the NGO, Society for the Protection of Rights of Children, have merely voiced pious hope that the problem will disappear. Are they waiting for a fairy godmother to grant them three wishes, or for a genii to appear from a lamp to do their work for them?
There are laws that forbid employment of children in certain high-risk jobs. There are laws to limit children's work-hours and work-load and for employers to send their workers to school as an obligatory condition for employing child labour. But nothing is done to implement these laws.
The government and NGOs may not be able to do any practical work in many areas where children are employed, but they can successfully eradicate domestic child labour in urban households. In the absence of a survey, an amateur guess is that in Karachi at least 5,000 little children, mostly girls, are employed as house servants.
There is no need for children to work as domestics in Karachi. It is shocking that the middle-aclass which is aware of Rights, employs children.
From my experience it seems to me little children are made to work in houses by their poor parents more out of greed than need.
The money their children earn is not necessary for their survival as it is, say, for the survival of brickmakers and kiln workers in the rural sector.
Here is an area where a total ban on child labour can be effective. Why hasn't something been done in all these years? Is it because they have not considered it or because they do not really want to change the status quo? I have a suspicion it is the latter reason.
My guilt at employing a child despite my high principles has made me cynical. I will not be surprised to know that the NGOs and government employees who shed tears for the plight of the child worker themselves have a little mite sweeping and swabbing their homes.
Karachi's middle-class only needs a little nudge to make it realise the enormity of employing children. All it would take is to put the fear of God, "Khuda ka khauf", in them and such exploitation could end. After this diatribe, it may seem odd to say I am not against children working. In fact through my long career as a journalist I have said so.
But what I mean is the establishment of licensed apprenticeship where young children (10-years and above) work for an agreed period of time at low pay, in order to learn a craft or trade. We cannot eradicate child labour through rhetoric. Apprenticeship seems to be a practical solution.