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Milad PourEisi

He doesn’t sell fortunes on the sidewalk, nor does he lean against cars and smoke, nor is he a beggar on the side of the street, nor does he bake bricks… but he is still a child laborer. It may be hard to believe because in common belief, child labor is mostly seen and known in urban and street environments. So much so that the street has become synonymous with child labor: street and child labor.

This is one of the incidents that happen in the corners of houses; perhaps it is also a bad accident. Child laborers are told to people under 18 who work in other people’s homes and do activities such as hard household chores, taking care of children, gardening, delivering messages, and helping their employers in managing small businesses. Some of these children live in their employers’ homes and some live separately. Some of them receive money for their work and some do these tasks in exchange for food, shelter, and care.

This very characteristic of being “domestic” makes the active children in this sector perhaps more complicated and certainly more hidden in terms of violence compared to other working children. Domestic working children may work for relatives and family members or for strangers. This makes the relationship between domestic working children and the employing family less transparent. For example, in these circumstances, the child is busy working but is not considered a working child, or they may live with family members but are not treated as a member of the family. In other sectors of child labor, the individual can at least hope to seek refuge with their family after hours of work, and although very little, they can still benefit from the relative security of their parents’ presence for a few hours; a security that a child trapped in domestic work, being a full-time prisoner in the employer’s home, does not have access to.

Children who are employed in domestic work by their parents and relatives are sold to other families to work for them. The location and conditions of these children are usually not clear, and there is no effective way to find out about their situation and fate. Contact between the child worker and their parents is cut off, and as a result, the child becomes completely dependent on their employer family. This dependency makes the children more vulnerable and exposes them to other forms of exploitation. Perhaps this is why child domestic work has been considered a form of modern slavery for years. In its 1993 report, the specialized committee of the International Labor Organization provided explanations about child labor.

User.

The committee has presented Convention No. 29. This committee considers the separation of children from their homes and families as a factor in increasing the risk of physical and sexual abuse, long working hours, difficult working conditions, and forced toleration of insults for children.

Another point about child domestic labor is the widespread gender discrimination surrounding this issue. According to statistics, a large portion of children employed in this field are girls. This is largely due to incorrect traditions prevalent in underdeveloped societies about a woman’s duty in managing household affairs. For example, parents believe that their daughter working for a wealthy family can lead to opportunities for her and for them. Social restrictions on girls make domestic labor one of the few acceptable jobs for them. Additionally, many believe that domestic work is easier than other jobs and provides a suitable environment for girls and children. Employers of child domestic workers do not see their work as exploiting children, but this gender inequality greatly increases the likelihood of sexual violence against these children. According to some official statistics, 915,000 children in Iran are registered as child domestic workers, of which 98.9% are girls.

Sexual violence against child domestic workers, which is a result of their isolation and vulnerability, is a relatively common occurrence. For example, in Haiti, female domestic workers are sometimes referred to as “restaveks,” a word in the language.

Creole

The term “local” means “such and such”. These girls are considered as tools for satisfying the sexual desires of boys and men in the house. According to reports, more than one-fourth of the girls who are sexually exploited in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) were previously child domestic workers. Many of these girls have been sexually abused by members of their employers’ families. If they become pregnant, they are usually kicked out of the house and forced to wander the streets, as the shame of the situation makes it difficult for them to return home. Many families reject these “corrupt girls” because their behavior is seen as a disgrace and dishonor to the family.

But what is the situation of buying and selling children in Iran and their forced labor in domestic work? The simple answer to this question is: although there is much less expression and information about this issue compared to other types of child labor, according to some statistics, as mentioned at the beginning of this report, one of the reasons for lack of awareness about this issue is its domestic nature, which makes it difficult for the government or civil institutions to become aware of a child being subjected to slavery in a certain household, unless their bones are broken and their name becomes a headline in the newspapers due to severe torture.

Household chores for children are not only done due to poverty, unlike other types of child labor. In most cases, family problems accelerate children’s involvement in household chores. Divorce, physical and sexual abuse within the family, along with issues such as alcohol addiction, can be considered important factors in this matter.

From this perspective, this harm can be compared to the escape of young people from home. Just like a young person who gives up being with their family due to various deprivations and violence; a child may also leave their original family and seek refuge in other families. Although in the new family, alongside the possibility of deprivation of wages, they may also endure other deprivations such as emotional and physical discrimination. The wide range of factors involved in domestic work and the complexity of its harms compared to other types of child labor make it more difficult to combat; to the extent that in Iran, efforts are being made to deny the main issue, which is its existence and scope.