Reports of a child domestic worker tortured to death just because he had dared feast on delicacies forbidden to him is yet another proof of how we as a society have sunken to the unimaginable depths of moral depravity. That the poor boy breathed his last in the glitzy Defence neighbourhood twists the knife further in. If only people living in multi-million dollar palaces could stop bragging about their manicured lawns and designer furniture for a moment and take a deeper look at what went on behind their closed doors, Pakistan would have been nowhere close to this ongoing endemic of child labour abuse. But considering how normalised this form of exploitation has become, the repeated airing of the dirty laundry of the haves has mostly fallen on deaf ears. There have been numerous social media outcries where hashtags about alleged abuse by employers have gone viral but to no avail. Half-hearted attempts at legislation–however talked about in television studios–cannot do any wonders about thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of children working across the board without effective enforcement. Nothing else matters. No vigils, no protests and definitely no outpours on Twitter can change the ground reality unless the state gets a little serious about the accountability of transgressors. Has the Punjab Domestic Workers Act, with all its fanfare, managed to provide Pakistan’s fastest-growing workforce with even a vestige of security of lives and livelihoods? 10-year-old Kamran is not among us anymore but to let yet another life go to waste without leaving even a small impact on those around it would be downright tragic. As per data collected by International Labour Organisation, the trend of child labour is in no mood to lose its strength and therefore, Child Protection Bureau among other public entities have to step forward to champion this cause. Letting this crime slide by would only compound the impunity enjoyed by scores and scores of the affluent who feel confident in burying their bouts of violence under the influence of hush-hush money. Here’s to standing up for all voices of dissent so that all children enjoy the right to safe and happy childhoods, today, tomorrow and always! *