Probinsyano Ako Partylist Rep. Jose “Bonito” C. Singson Jr. on Sunday, May 23, appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to include the estimated 1.2 million domestic helpers in the country in the A4 priority category for 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vacci
BusinessWorld
May 23, 2021 | 7:40 pm
A LAWMAKER on Sunday pushed for the inclusion of domestic workers, or
kasambahay, under the economic frontline workers group that is next in line for priority vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In a statement on Sunday, Probinsyano Ako Partylist Rep. Jose C. Singson, Jr. said household helpers need “immediate protection” and called on the national task force managing the COVID-19 response to consider their addition in the A4 vaccination category.
“I can’t see any valid justification to exclude
kasambahays in the vaccine priority list. If we want families that do not go outside their homes safe from the virus, we should also have our
The writer is a litigator based in Islamabad.
KUNTA Kinte, the protagonist-ancestor of Alex Haley in Roots, is snatched from his village in the Gambia, away from his family, homeland and dreams, and transported in chains, amidst lashings, filth, disease and death to the US. There he is sold as a slave. Repeated attempts at escape end up in failure; the free-spirited and dignified Kunta finally succumbs to a life in bondage.
While a vibrant slave trade made the supply of slaves to the whites possible in the US, we breed slaves aplenty in our own homeland. Abject poverty and extreme inequality bring people to surrender themselves and their children as slaves, primarily in urban centres, to serve the masters round the clock cleaning, scraping, mopping, cooking, driving for at times as little as a few morsels of food and lodgings. Some masters choose to be relatively humane, others not.
The writer is a paediatrician at the Aga Khan University Hospital.
HIRING a child for domestic help is common across Pakistan. Many prefer to employ children because they provide cheaper labour, can be controlled and more easily threatened, consume fewer resources, and are more active and require less space.
The irony, however, is that although child labour is recognised as an abominable infringement of children’s rights across the world, people who hire child domestic help look upon themselves as the saviours of these hapless children.
Recently, at a friend’s house, I saw a 10-year-old girl holding a diaper bag in one hand and her three-year-old son in the other. I immediately told my friend that child labour was unacceptable. Her hollow justification sidestepped the issue: “Her parents are so poor that they cannot afford a single meal; I give her three meals and clothing.”
Household workers face abuse and exploitation in plain sight
I was handed a glass of water while Salma moved the extra clothes from the charpoy and adjusted herself right in front of me, fixing her shawl and making sure I was comfortable where I was sitting.
After a few minutes of small talk about the weather, she asked me about my research and I explained it to her. Her next question left me a little confused and rather annoyed at myself for not being able to answer it coherently. Salma asked if my research was helping my key subjects in any substantial way. The truth is, it wasn’t. This simply was a task that I was supposed to perform in order to get a degree that would validate my intellect of four years. However, I did see this task as a way of acknowledging and getting to know about female domestic workers who have been a major force behind the growing informal economy of Pakistan even as their labour remains hidden and invisible.