(Meeran Salik, Karachi)
It is very difficult to make a precise estimate of the magnitude of child labour in Pakistan on account of numerous limitations basic being a lack of data. The last child labour survey conducted by the government was in 1996. According to the survey, 3.3 million of the 40 million children were found to be economically active on a full-time basis. Of the 3.3 million working children, 73 percent (2.4 million) were boys and 27 percent (0.9 million) were girls. Officially children made up about seven percent of the total work force according to the findings of the survey. The provincial distribution indicated that the volume of child labour in the Punjab was about 1.9 million; three-fifths (60 percent) of total child labour in the country. The second on the list was NWFP, where about one million children were working. Sindh had a population of 298,000 child labourers. The lowest figure was for Balochistan, 14,000, because of the lesser number of households reporting child labour.