God has given human beings the
boon of wisdom and discretion to think upon the signs of the universe and to
draw conclusions. That is the reason why they disclose the hidden facts of it
and its structure and have made remarkable progress in many walks of life.
Children are the flowers of heaven. They are the most beautiful and purest
creation of God. They are innocent both inwardly and outwardly. No doubt, they
are the beauty of this world. Early in the morning when the children put on
different kinds of clothes and begin to go to schools for the sake of knowledge,
we feel a specific kind of joy through their innocence.
But there are also other children, those who cannot go to schools due to
financial problems, they only watch others go to schools and can merely wish to
seek knowledge.It is due to many hindrances and difficulties; desperate
conditions that they face in life. Having been forced to kill their aspirations,
dreams and other wishes, they are pressed to earn a living for themselves and
for their families. It is also a fact that there are many children who play a
key role in sustaining the economically life of their family without which,
their families would not be able to make ends meet. These are also part of our
society who have forgotten the pleasures of their childhood. When a child in
addition to getting education, earns his livelihood, this act of earning a
livelihood is called as child Labour. The concept of child Labour got much
attention during the 1990s when European countries announced a ban on the goods
of the less-developed countries because of child Labour.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child Labour as:
1- when a child is working during early age
2- he overworks or gives over time to Labour
3- he works due to the psychologically, socially, and materialistic pressure
4- he becomes ready to Labour on a very low pay
Another definition states:
“Child Labour” is generally speaking work for children that harms them or
exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally or blocking access to
education),United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF)
defines “child” as anyone below the age of 18, and “child Labour” as some type
of work performed by children below age 18. (UNICEF)
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.
Province-wise Comparison of Child Labour[1] Province Total No. of Children in
age group of 5-14 years (millions) Total No. of Economically Active Children in
Age group of 5-14 years (millions) Ratio of Child Labour Punjab 22.63 1.94 8.6%
Sindh 8.62 0.30 3.5% NWFP 6.71 1.06 15.8% Balochistan 2.07 0.01 0.5% Total 40.03
3.31 8.3%
Child Labour is an important and a serious global issue through which all and
sundry countries of the world are directly or indirectly affected, but, it is
very common in Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to some, in several
Asian countries’ 1/10 manpower consists of child Labour. In India the number of
children between the ages of 10-14 has crossed above 44 million, in Pakistan
this number is from 8 to 10 million, in Bangladesh 8-12 million, in Brazil 7
million, whereas their number is 12 million in Nigeria.
In Pakistan children aged 5-14 are above 40 million.During the last year, the
Federal Bureau of Statistics released the results of its survey funded by ILO’s
IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour). The findings
were that 3.8 million children age group of 5-14 years are working in Pakistan
out of total 40 million children in this age group; fifty percent of these
economically active children are in age group of 5 to 9 years. Even out of these
3.8 million economically active children, 2.7 million were claimed to be working
in the agriculture sector. Two million and four hundred thousand (73%) of them
were said to be boys.
During the year 2001 and 2002 the government of Pakistan carried out a series of
consultation of tripartite partners and stakeholders (Labour Department, trade
unions, employers and NGOs) in all the provinces. The objective was to identify
the occupations and the categories of work, which may be considered as hazardous
under the provisions of ILO Convention 182. As a result of these deliberations,
a national consensus list of occupations and categories of work was identified,
which is given below:
1. Nature of occupation-category of work
2. Work inside under ground mines over ground quarries, including blasting and
assisting in blasting
3. Work with power driven cutting machinery like saws, shears, and guillotines,
( Thrashers, fodder cutting machines, also marbles)
4. Work with live electrical wires over 50V.
5. All operation related to leather tanning process e.g. soaking, dehairing,
liming chrome tanning, deliming, pickling defleshing, and ink application.
6. Mixing or application or pesticides insecticide/fumigation.
7. Sandblasting and other work involving exposure to free silica.
8. Work with exposure to ALL toxic, explosive and carcinogenic chemicals e.g.
asbestos, benzene, ammonia, chlorine, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide,
sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, caustic soda, phosphorus,
benzidene dyes, isocyanides, carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulphide, epoxy,
resins, formaldehyde, metal fumes, heavy metals like nickel, mercury chromium,
lead, arsenic, beryllium, fiber glass, and
9. Work with exposure to cement dust (cement industry)
10. Work with exposure to coal dust
11. Manufacture and sale of fireworks explosives
12. Work at the sites where Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural
Gas (CNG) are filled in cylinders.
13. Work on glass and metal furnaces
14. Work in the clothe printing, dyeing and finishing sections
15. Work inside sewer pipelines, pits, storage tanks
16. Stone crushing
17. Lifting and carrying of heavy weight specially in transport industry ( 15b
kg and above)
18. Work between 10 pm to 8 am ( Hotel Industry)
19. Carpet waving
20. Working 2 meter above the floor
21. All scavenging including hospital waste
22. tobacco process ( including Niswar) and Manufacturing
23. Deep fishing ( commercial fishing/ sea food and fish processing
24. Sheep casing and wool industry
25. Ship breaking
26. Surgical instrument manufacturing specially in vendors workshop
27. Bangles glass, furnaces
Now we can easily imagine in the light of above mentioned facts and figures how
the nation’s future namely children are deprived of pleasures of life, ignorance
has reduced their abilities of thinking right or differentiating between right
and wrong, as well as their life-chances, to their non-access to education. It
is true that child Labour is not an isolated phenomenon.
It is an outcome of a multitude of socio-economic factors and has its roots in
poverty, lack of opportunities, high rate of population growth, unemployment,
uneven distribution of wealth and resources, outdated social customs and norms
and plethora of other factors. According to the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) the daily income of 65.5% people of Pakistan is below 2 U.S.
dollars a day. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Report, 47 million
people in Pakistan are leading lines below the line of poverty, whereas the
Social Policy Development Centre (SDPC) Karachi has stated in one of its reports
that the ratio of poverty in Pakistan was 33% during 1999 that increased in 2001
and reached 38%. The ratio of poverty in the current year is around 30%.
Consider the point that if 30% of our country’s total population is leading life
below the poverty-line wherein the people are deprived of basic necessities of
life like clothing, shelter, food, education and medication, the children of
these people will be forced to become Labourers or workers in order to survive.
Another reason of child Labour in Pakistan is that our people don’t have the
security of social life. There is no aid plan or allowance for children in our
country. Class-based education system is another reason for increasing child
Labour; villages lack standardized education systems and as a result, child
Labour is on increase in rural areas. The government has not put its laws into
practice to stop child Labour in our country. Employers after exploiting child
Labour, extract a large surplus, whereas child Labour, despite increasing
poverty, unemployment and other problems, are pressed to do anything and
everything for their livelihood and the survival of their families.
Child Labour is a complex problem which demands a range of solutions. There is
no better way to prevent child Labour than to make education compulsory. The
West understood this a long time ago. Laws were enacted very early to secure
continued education for working children; and now they have gone a step forward,
and required completion of at least the preliminary education of the child
before he or she starts work.
Martin Luther as back far 1524 sent a letter to German Municipalities insisting
it was their duty to provide schools, and the duty of parents to educate their
children. In Sweden, a royal decree in 1723 instructed parents and guardians to
diligently see to it that their children applied themselves to book reading. In
Europe, one country after another; Scotland, Prussia (1817), Austria (1869),
France, United Kingdom (1880) and Italy made education compulsory. In 1872,
Japan became the first non-Western country to make elementary school education
compulsory with the declaration by the Meiji Govt.
The present government in Pakistan has made elementary education compulsory.
Along with this, the government has distributed free books in primary schools so
that parents, who cannot afford their children’s school expenses, send their
children to schools. The major point is that this decision must be acted upon at
all levels. There is strict need to stop child Labour in this country. Awareness
must be raised and the attention of parents ought to be diverted to the
education of their children. Child Labour Laws should be put into practice
strictly. In addition, the educational system of the country-must be reshaped
and restructured according to national development goals. The orphans and other
deserving children must be helped financially on a prolonged basis. It is also
essential to eliminate child Labour from the country, that the political,
economical and social system of the country are need to be reshaped and such
steps taken that make child Labour in this country a crime. They should bring on
the well-being of a lay man, good governance and end to exploitative thinking.
If we succeed to act upon these principles, our country can easily get rid of
this problem i.e. child Labour. The agreement that has recently been approved by
Pakistan, Norway and ILO to eradicate child Labour must be given importance and
we hope that our rulers must put this agreement into practice using all means at
their disposal.