Teenage maid Uzma Bibi was found murdered and dumped in a canal, forcing Pakistan to confront brutality of child labour
- Her employer and two other women remain in custody as a police investigation into the murder continues
- Children are particularly vulnerable, and Bibi’s case is the latest in a growing number of incidents involving minors
Police said Uzma died after blows to the head with a kitchen utensil. She had been working for the family in Lahore for eight months when she was killed in January this year.
Her employer and two other women remain in custody as a police investigation into the murder and allegations of mistreatment drags on.
“I will not give up, I prefer death, I will not let them go, I want to see them pay for what they did,” said Uzma’s distraught father, Muhammad Riaz.
The teenager earned just 4,000 rupees (US$28) per month.
In Pakistan, 8.5 million domestic workers – including many children – labour for wealthier families according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“Parents often see their children as a way to lift their families out of poverty,” explained Arooma Shahzad, general secretary of the Domestic Workers’ Union, the country’s first – and still its only – such organisation.