مضمون کا ماخذ : اسکریچ کارڈ نمبر
How are child maids recruited?
Some child maids end up working in homes alongside their parents, or find work locally. But others are recruited by agents. Irshad Bibi and one of her fast-talking recruitment agents, Sidra, agreed to let me accompany them on a trip to a village to find new potential child maids. Their phones were constantly ringing – […]
Some child maids end up working in homes alongside their parents, or find work locally. But others are recruited by agents.
Irshad Bibi and one of her fast-talking recruitment agents, Sidra, agreed to let me accompany them on a trip to a village to find new potential child maids. Their phones were constantly ringing – apparently clients looking for child maids.
Walking along the dirt roads I asked Sidra if she ever had to convince families their children would be safe?
“Yes, I have. We say, ‘Send your children, and we’ll look after them.'”
They take me to the home of a family who are hoping to send their 10-year-old daughter to work in Islamabad, about 240km (150 miles) away.
The mother says she’s told her daughter about the plan and that she’s agreed to it. Rabia, the young girl, looks up shyly at me. She’s never worked before, though she tells me she washes the dishes and helps tend the goats at home. I ask her if she’ll be scared living away from her parents. She shakes her head, “No.”
“We’re poor. We have no choice,” adds her mother. She worked as a maid herself as a child, in the home of the local village landlord.
“The first few days you think, ‘Where am I?’ Then you just put up with it.”
Published in Daily Times, June 11th 2018.
