Pakistan’s unprotected child labour law makes domestic child labour vulnerable and susceptible!
Karma Global Rebuilds Compliances for Businesses with Robust Integration as Cost of Non Compliances Could Be More Than Cost of Compliances!!!!!
Karma Global one of the top 5 labour law consulting firms in the country, has recently hit upon yet another significant milestone in the journey of tying up with SUNDEEP PURI ASSOCIATES AND ADVOCATE, where both these Firms have formally joined hands together to collaborate and create a bigger alliance by scaling up its business on Pan India basis and Internationally to give greater reach of its services together, to its hundreds of clients all over.
The pandemic has changed the very way we do business, disrupting everything from global supply chains to financial markets which subsequently paved the way for change, new adaptations and rebuilding of business models with compliance being at the at the heart of this change.
In this context, the Enterprises too need a change in mind-set for those who want to remain on the right side of the law. “If the government can change, Corporate and Corporations need to be faster than the regulatory authorities in changing their mind-set in this automation game.
Only a few years back, we had compliance people to check and update on compliance conforming to the prevailing laws but now the nature of work is changing and we have the platforms that put all the dates, and laws in the form of a checklist for us, which comes as a lifesaver,”
At present, not all but most of the companies have woken up to the reality of this changing compliance landscape with the announcement of the new labour codes and with it there is a growing trend towards digitization to improve compliance and ensure that organizations are saved from the stiff penalties imposed on defaulters. “Every other day you have a different regulation change happening across numerous States, recent example with Chhattisgarh going in for old pension while other States are opting for new pension.
We have many vendors who are going towards digitalization to track these compliance and regulation changes,” and Karma Global is proud to have adopted the new AI technology and automation much before others could even think about it. With the changing notifications from the government, and requirement of reporting real-time data to authorities on month / quarterly /half yearly and annual basis, it is technology that has set new standards and disrupted the traditional methods and practices.
An increasing number of companies today are using a mix of internal and externally developed technology tools to keep pace with the fast changing compliance landscape and are standing with Karma Global for its state of the art “WeProcess” and “WeChecked” tools that offer advanced features, chat bots, machine learning, single up loading of all documents, and final evaluation together with remediation of noncompliance.
“The compliance scenario in India has gone so far that everything is interconnected. One failure somewhere is going to reflect in many records. We see the government rolling things out step by step to make sure that they have a more robust compliance mechanism and a compliance driven economy.
So in this regard, besides the business profile of Karma Global relating to labour laws, it will now focus whole time also on legal and para legal issues and matters with the collaboration of Sundeep Puri & Associates who are already into legal matters such as disputes, litigation, and court cases.
Pakistan’s unprotected child labour law makes domestic child labour vulnerable and susceptible!
Child Labour in the U.S.
A devastating new investigation by the New York Times found migrant children across the United States working in dangerous jobs in violation of US child labour laws.
A group of often-overlooked US child workers – those working in agriculture – regularly risk their health and lives in dangerous jobs. But their backbreaking work rarely violates child labour laws because they lack basic protections given to other child workers.
Child Farm Workers often work 10 or 12 hours a day in gruelling conditions, exposed to pesticides, extreme heat, heavy machinery, and other dangers. Many start working at age 12 or 13 to help their families make ends meet.
Agriculture is the deadliest sector for child workers in the US; thousands are injured on farms every year.
But under US labour law, children as young as 12 can work unlimited hours on farms of any size with parental permission, as long as they do not miss school. Once 16, child farmworkers can do work considered hazardous, compared to 18 for other sectors.
Child Labour in Pakistan
Child labour in domestic work is a widespread phenomenon across Pakistan. One in every four households in Pakistan employs a child in domestic work, predominantly children in the age group of 10 to 14 years according to a study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2022.
Unfortunately, the practice of employing children as domestic workers has become a norm in Pakistani society. It is seen in a positive light as a protected and non-stigmatized type of child labour, and is perceived as less cruel than others form of employment, such as children working in brick kilns or factories. Child labour in domestic work is socially and culturally accepted in society, despite being explicitly illegal in some provinces.
Children are often forcefully employed in domestic work in a bonded labour system by their guardians after receiving ‘peshgi’ (advance) even though the Sindh Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 2015 has abolished the practice of the bonded labour system. Section 4 of the Act says, “…bonded labourer shall stand freed and discharged from any obligation to render any bonded labour. (2) No person shall make any advance under, or in pursuance of, the bonded labour system or compel any person to render any bonded labour or other form of forced, labour.’’
Also, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018 was introduced with the purpose to combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children. The law defines ‘child’ as a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. It is applicable across Pakistan.
Organizations such as the Legal Rights Forum (LRF) provide free-of-cost legal assistance and psycho-social support to victims/survivors/complainants of child domestic labour and child sexual abuse under the existing legal landscape. However, the enactment of an explicit law in Sindh will provide child domestic workers with greater protection and ensure that they are not subjected to abuse or exploitation by stipulating strict punishments for the offenders and providing explicit protection mechanisms for the domestic workers.
ILO – Child Labour in domestic work in Pakistan: A scoping study
Child labour in domestic work remains a widespread, but hidden, phenomenon worldwide. The qualitative study assessed the current situation of child labour in domestic work, elaborated the major push and pull factors, working conditions, effects on children’s health, safety, and education, and recommended the priority areas for combatting child labour in domestic work in Pakistan.
This study offered pertinent insights into the current landscape of child labour in domestic work in Pakistan and determined that one in every four households in Pakistan employs a child in domestic work, predominantly girls, aged 10 to 14 years.
The lives of the children engaged in child labour in domestic work were assessed at the micro-level, where the ‘push’ factors were explored, including social support, home environment and, the attitude of children and parents towards child labour.
The meso system explained the ‘pull’ factors for child labour in domestic work including the working conditions, exposure to hazards, violence and abuse, remuneration and payment methods, school attendance, the support of the family members and neighbourhood.
The macro-level critically assessed the policies, laws and programmes, addressing the national and sub-national response to child labour in domestic work. And finally, the priority areas were recommended including legislative and non-legislative measures for combatting child labour in domestic work in Pakistan.
Conclusion: Development of programs and mechanisms is the only way to protect child victims of forced labour.
In June 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child provided concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Pakistan, it urged Pakistan to eradicate all forms of bonded and forced labour of children and develop programmes and mechanisms to identify and protect child victims of forced labour, particularly bonded labour as well as child labour in the informal sector, including domestic work.
Article 4 of the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act 2017 allows the government to amend the Schedule by notification in the official gazette. Therefore, the Sindh government should urgently add ‘domestic child labour’ as hazardous work to the Schedule by notification in the official gazette to protect children from being employed as domestic workers. Further, comprehensive legislation to protect domestic workers (similar to one in Islamabad and Punjab) should also be enacted.
Karma Global works across a wide variety of industries, constantly looking for ways to offer new services and increase its global businesses.
In order to serve today’s technology to tech savvy clients and employees, Karma Global planned much ahead of its time by adapting to processes and systems to accommodate the quickly changing markets.
As Industry is continuing to get more and more competitive, Karma Global is bridging the gap, setting itself in tune with the latest technology trends in order to maintain a competitive advantage for all its over 400 domestic and global clients.
Automation and AI – Karma Global was among the first to improve efficiencies, the first in the vendor auditing process to fully automate and streamline any and all processes surrounding the auditing business of entity and vendors.
The chat bot and AI did a fabulous job of giving machine output, with a quicker pace, cheaper rate, and more accurate level of auditing and reporting.
This helped in elevating the roles of our Auditors to focus on complex tasks that require more brainpower or the human touch, leaving some of its task to the capabilities of the machine.
Incorporating chat bots in customer service allowed time for our expert representatives to spend time dealing with more complex issues which could ultimately add to the user experience and this is what set us apart from others.
Automating repetitive processes in our systems helped us free the valuable time of our expert staff allowing them to reach out to more clients.
For this purpose, Karma Global has both full time IT related staff and also indirect staff who are freelancing with us for enhancing our IT capabilities to the next level on the cloud platform.
Also, clients with issues such as litigation, disputes, closure, lockdown, retrenchment and layoffs could take the help of Karma Global in sorting this out since it now has a formidable partner by the name of Sundeep Puri & Associates to provide further solutions on such or any legal entanglements.
Proprietary blog of Karma Global Tech Management LLC
This blog has been collated and compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, besides adaptation, illustration, derivation, transformation, collection as well as auto generation from various sources, for its monthly newsletter Issue 11 of May 2023 and in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the Marketing Team – Kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com.