Little Tayyaba is still awaiting justice. True, the couple for whom she had been working as a maid when she was just 10-years-old and who were guilty of torturing her have been sentenced. And there are those claiming victory on the grounds that a precedent has been sent. After all, a judge has been sent to the slammer. Nevertheless, that additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Raja Khurram and his wife, Maheen Zafar, were each handed down a one-year custodial sentence as well as a Rs50,000 fine appears rather lenient in the circumstances. This is not to cast aspersions on Chief Justice Saqib Nisar. For he was the one who pushed for trial even after Tayyaba’s parents said they would not be pressing charges against the couple; having already reached a settlement of sorts. This is not unusual in such cases where such gross class divisions tip the balance of power towards the perpetrator. Civil society must not remain silent on this matter. Indeed, the verdict must be used to spearhead yet another national conversation about domestic help and, in particular, child labour. For far too long have the affluent class preached feudal benevolence towards the hired help. Thus privileged families are all too ready to believe that just because they do not, say, make their maids stand in a corner at a posh restaurant while tucking into their nosh — that they are better than the rest. Or since they do not make the girl child do much heavy-lifting when it comes to household chores — allowing her the perk of being an (un)paid companion for the family offspring — they are demonstrating untold kindness. This is simply not true. And just because the elite have decided that the term ‘servant’ is now unfashionable does not mean that they have stopped treating domestic help as such. Bluntly put, any minor out of school and in employment is, by definition, bonded labour. Moreover, those like Tayyaba are being robbed of fundamental rights to both a childhood and an education. Thus the penalty for anyone complicit on these fronts ought to be more than that meted out to this now infamous couple. The litmus test will be if local communities come out on to the streets to demand justice the way they did for Zainab. Though this is unlikely. And while many will argue that the two cases are disparate given how the latter was raped and murdered — the overriding distinction is that most Pakistanis cannot identify with a paedophile. It is an altogether different matter when it comes to master-servant dynamics. * Published in Daily Times, April 19th 2018.