The recent incident, in which a minor was killed, showed the cracks in the system through which the poor can fall. The problem lies in the practice of handing over children to others in exchange for an advance on salary, which amounts to a sort of sale of the children, who will have to spend a long time paying off their money their parents have spent. The parents can be faulted for seeing their children as an asset that can generate money, rather than as a person in their care, who deserves a childhood and an education. The incident in Lahore is not the first; it might be remembered that a civil judge and his wife in Islamabad did the same thing, making a splash not too long. The Lahore case may be more sensational, because not only one child has been killed, but his brother injured severely.
Theft, of course, cannot be justified, but it is perhaps too much to expect little children, who have themselves had their childhood sold, not to be attracted by material objects. The real problem is that the children are being asked to do jobs beyond their capacity, are being burdened with responsibilities beyond their age.
Child labour is growing as the population is, because there is a market. There are no strong truancy laws, and the government does not really have enough capacity to put all these children in schools. There is no way that child labour can be sanitized, which makes it interesting that civil society organizations have not made more of fuss over the present incident. Though the situation does not admit of palliative measures, such as educating such child domestic measures, the government, as well as those who are better off, must act to make sure that such situations do not arise. Governments must ensure that the poor do not sell their children like this; the better off must refuse to use domestic labour, especially of underage children. It should be noted that it is underage children to whom such abuses occur. One hears housewives complaining aplenty about the help, but never about them beating offending adults.
