Girls Deserve Better- Domestic Servitude In Pakistan

Girls Deserve Better- Domestic Servitude In Pakistan
Early in 2010, a young girl Shazia was taken to the hospital having been stabbed numerous times while working as a “domestic servant”. She died shortly thereafter. Only days later another girl in domestic work, 15 year old Yasmin, died from burns she suffered at the hands of her employers. Horrifying as their stories are, they are not unlike many other girls in Pakistan, who are forced into domestic work for survival.
What would you want for a girl or young woman aged 6-18? Education, a safe environment, good nutrition, and social support are probably things that come to mind. For girls, like Shazia and Yasmin, who are forced into domestic servitude in Pakistan this will never be true. These girls are forced into homes where they often live in slavery like conditions. They have no regulated hours, are starved, beaten, sexually abused and sometimes murdered by their captors. It is estimated that there are more than 250,000 girls born into poverty and forced to work as domestic servants in Pakistan. As they struggle to survive, these girls lose out on a chance to go to school, and build their own lives.
What can be done? There is opportunity now to change the law in Pakistan to better regulate domestic work and enforce laws that ban child labor. Equality Now in partnership with Pakistani organizations Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) and Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) are petitioning the Pakistani government to regulate labor and protect girls. You can join our action here (http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6208/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY... ) and help us end domestic slavery in Pakistan.
Girls deserve a childhood, education, and support. Demand that labor laws in Pakistan change.