The case of Shazia death by the hands of a lawyer covered by media is a good sign for humanity which is disgraced in Pakistan especially by those who deal in law and justice either they are from administration like police or courts related persons. Mr. Naeem, the accused one is lawyer, know the law but at the end how he used it or will use it in future to protect himself and his other partners is a blur in the name of justice. The most shameful thing is that supreme court bar to protect their colleague or friend, to divert the attention of media from this case again announced to start a campaign infavour of Chief Justice but was delayed as a result of some opponents.
What other people say, we have re-produced a story published in a local English newspaper as following:
“The story of the abuse and murder of a 12-year-old maid servant, working at the home of a lawyer in the Defence area of Lahore, is unusual simply because it has attracted widespread media coverage – and consequently drawn the attention of the top leadership.
But surely these persons cannot be totally oblivious to the fact that harassment, molestation and occasional murder are a routine part of the life of many domestic servants. This is a documented reality. According to the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA), comprising a group of organisations working against the harassment of women in the workplace, 91 per cent of female domestic workers say they have suffered sexual abuse at one point or another. Those like the unfortunate Shazia, who are young and belong to a minority community, are especially vulnerable.
Each year, there are indeed complaints of abuse from other maids. Few are able to persuade anyone to hear them. A few months ago, a group of wealthy women in Lahore ‘helped’ a young girl who complained she was being ‘rented out’ almost each night to friends of her employer, in exchange for money paid to him, to find other employment. What they did not do was initiate any action against the man and his wife – who, it would appear, abetted him. It is this immunity from the law that allows such crime to continue. The failure of police to act – as in the case of Shazia – is after all not unusual. The powerful rarely face punishment.
There are many examples of this. Some years ago, in Mozang, a four-year-old boy, employed as kitchen help, was beaten to death by the woman for whom he worked. His crime: he had taken too long to pay a visit to the bathroom – located away from the house.
The child’s body was then dumped on a garbage heap by his employer and her husband. Here, media coverage of the matter ends. We do not know if the couple – parents themselves – ended up in police custody or if they were put on trial. It is thought they may have escaped. The parents of the boy may have accepted a bribe. After a brief media flurry, the trail runs entirely cold. The headlines grow smaller and then fade away. This of course is a fact in other cases too. It explains why such crimes continue; why those responsible remain confident they can get away with rape or murder.
The president has, in the case of Shazia, offered up Rs5 lakh to her family as ‘compensation’. This then is the price of her life. But what we really need is some kind of regulatory set-up that can offer protection to domestic workers. In the first place, the employment of children, least able to protect themselves, needs to be stopped. There are tens of thousands such children who perform the mundane chores of households, sometimes in exchange for little more than a single meal a day. Cases are documented each year of servants – children and adults alike – who are accused of theft and then denied a wage to ‘recover’ the loss. An employee at a fast food restaurant where birthday parties for the offspring of the elite are regularly hosted says he feels compelled to smuggle food to the small maids who watch their charges eat, some saying they survive only on kitchen scraps. He has seen scars inflicted by beating on scrawny arms. There are maids who regularly work a day that lasts 16 hours or even more, and who suffer beatings, verbal abuse and worse. The events that take place behind the doors of grand households are after all hidden from the public. The lack of laws to protect domestic workers leaves them without any cover at all.
This is of course not unique to Pakistan. The abuse of domestic workers has frequently been reported from the Middle East, India and indeed other nations. But it is true too that in other places, unions of domestic servants have been created and legislation written up defining their rights as well as their responsibilities. We need to move towards this. A single case, and action on it, in the longer run, changes nothing at all. What is essential is that it be used as a lever to put laws in place and initiate a wider process of reform, backed by the assemblies.
But the fact is that even laws on their own are quite insufficient. The failures to implement them are after all widespread. Nevertheless they represent an important step forward. Our government must, however, also assess what else is wrong. Poverty is frequently cited as an explanation or justification for child labour.
This is wrong. Indeed, work by children, who often receive next to nothing as wages, perpetuates poverty within families. It can also not be used as an excuse to push children into the workforce. Their lack of schooling drives on the cycle of deprivation. The increasing discrimination against non-Muslims too needs to be taken up as a priority. It is inflicting terrible havoc on society and threatens to cause still more harm.
These are issues that now need to be looked into. The intense media focus on the latest murder has paid dividends. But the fact is it cannot last. We saw this too in the recent case involving the death of a small girl at a hospital. Today, laws to regulate medical care in the private sector are being resisted. With the TV cameras searching out other topics, the pressure has shifted.
There are lessons here for the media. While its attention span is necessarily short in a world of rapidly changing news, perhaps there is some need for means to be found to lengthen this and to conduct campaigns that extend over time, moving towards ushering in real change.
But perhaps, more realistically speaking, this is a job for the government. The murder of Shazia has highlighted the inability of the state to protect those who most need its support. It is these issues that need to be taken up by leaders. The gaze of the government must then look beyond the child who died in such terrible circumstances in Defence and find ways of preventing other little girls from meeting the same fate.”
Source:http://www.thenews.com.pk, Thursday, January 28, 2010
Kamila Hyat writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com
