From the age of 10, Amina has been scrubbing, sweeping and cooking in a middle-class home in Pakistan's megacity of Karachi.

Like millions of Pakistani children, she is a household helper, an illegal but common practice that brings grief to families often too poor to seek justice.

"Alongside my mother, I cut vegetables, wash dishes, sweep the floor and mop. I hate working for this family," said the 13-year-old, who leaves her slum neighbourhood in Karachi at 7 am and often returns after dark.

"Sometimes we work on Sundays even though it's supposed to be our only day off, and that's really unfair."

One in four households in a country of 255 million people employs a child as a domestic worker, mostly girls aged 10 to 14, according to a 2022 report by the International Labour Organization

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