- The killing threw into relief a greater issue
The killing of an eight-year-old girl, Zahra, in Rawalpindi for releasing a pair of prize parrots has shed a harsh light on a very common practice: child labour. A child of only eight, having to work is a shame for a society that decries the failure to get children into school. That the murder took place can perhaps be understood, though neither excused nor forgiven. Such a small child is bound to make mistakes. Also, the balance of power is more likely to be with the adult, even if one ignores the advantages conferred by greater wealth and social status. It is another matter that the offence (in this case of letting parrots escape) is not capital. Even if the employer does not kill the employee, there will be violence. For every death, as in the present case, many, many more children will have suffered violence at the hands of those responsible for them.
The problem is essentially one of poverty. Parents may not find it possible to feed their children, let alone give them an education. They then put them out to work. It may be work to help them in the field or the shop, or even at home in the case of little girls, but they are usually given over to another. In the case of boys, they are apprenticed to a trade, in that of girls, they are sent out to be domestics. In both cases, not only do they cease to be a pecuniary responsibility for their parents, but their salaries contribute to the household income.
It is time that legislation is carried out, and the government must commit itself to ensuring the implementation of any such laws. There must be an ensuring that children do not have to work at an age when they should be in school; in the case of Zahra, barely starting school. The number of such cases is on the rise, and the government must ensure there is no repetition, not just of murder, as in Zahra’s case, but even of torture, as was committed recently in the neighbouring city of Islamabad by a judge and his wife.
