The tragic story of 11 years old domestic worker Kinza being starved and routinely tortured, though heartbreaking should not come as a surprise to anyone. A similar story gets viral on social media, is picked by mainstream media, authorities take notice, police takes action and in seldom cases, culprits are brought to books and that is it. The tale slips away from collective conscious until a new story emerges and whole chain of events start playing on a loop.
The story of Tayyaba that made rounds on media in 2016 all ended in vain when the individuals involved eventually got away when all the limelight of the case was taken away after they were sentenced to three years in prison. Media reports suggest that Kinza case is going in similar direction with attempts to settle the matter out of court which surely will be done after media turns its attention away to some other juicy story.
Child abuse is a chronic issue that runs deep in our society and must be seen and taken as something more than a one-off event. 99.9 pc of domestic help employed all over the country consists of minor children who are routinely subjected to torture and often go unreported. A child as young as 11 years old should not be working in the first place and if parents are compelled to subject a child to labor, there should be effective legislation to preserve their physical and psychological safety.
Anyone employing child domestic help should be obligated to provide them with basic education and enriching environment. State should automatically become party in child abuse case and parents of child should be tried along with employers in case of child abuse. Media both social and mainstream did a commendable job in case of Tayyaba and Kinza, but it should do more by keep following up their cases and actively strive to bring other such cases into spotlight.
