Agriculture:

In many countries child labor is mainly an agricultural issue. Worldwide 60 percent of all child
laborers in the age group 5-17 years’ work in agriculture, including farming, fishing,
aquaculture, forestry, and livestock. This amounts to over 98 million girls and boys. The majority
(67.5%) of child laborers are unpaid family members. In agriculture this percentage is higher,
and is combined with very early entry into work, sometimes between 5 and 7 years of age1.
Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous sectors in terms of work-related fatalities, non-
fatal accidents and occupational diseases. About 59 percent of all children in hazardous work
aged 5–17 are in agriculture.

Poverty is the main cause of child labor in agriculture, together with limited access to quality
education, inadequate agricultural technology and access to adult labor, high hazards and risks,
and traditional attitudes towards children’s participation in agricultural activities. Especially in
the context of family farming, small-scale fisheries and livestock husbandry, some participation
of children in non-hazardous activities can be positive as it contributes to the inter-generational
transfer of skills and children’s food security. It is important to distinguish between light duties
that do no harm to the child and child labor, which is work that interferes with compulsory
schooling and damages health and personal development, based on hours and conditions of
work, child’s age, activities performed and hazards involved.

Sub-sectors:
Child labor is common in all agriculture sub-sectors, albeit with different characteristics:

 Farming
 Fishing and aquaculture
 Forestry
 Livestock production

Carpet weaving:

The use of child labor in several countries where hand-woven rugs and carpets are produced has
been well-documented.

In areas of the world where rug weaving is the major source of income for a family (very much
like farming), children are expected to help with chores and bring in some income when
possible. Weaving is a specialized skill passed down from parents to children and it can mean
more income for the family when the children are involved. This is a fact of life for these people.
Unfortunately, education and the possibility of a better life for the children quickly fall by the
wayside through the actions of dishonest profiteers in the industry.
While we can understand that children working with their parents at home can be beneficial for
the family unit, even though it means delaying education of eliminating it altogether, it is
generally not considered to be morally wrong. Bonded or forced labor on the other hand is evil
and abusive, no matter the age of the person forced to work long hours for little or no pay under
excessively harsh conditions.

Forced or bonded labor can be initiated when a poverty-stricken family requests a loan from a
weaving contractor, perhaps for a wedding or a funeral. In order to pay back the loan, one or
more family members will be forced to work until the loan is paid off. It is unlikely the loan will
be paid back in a reasonable time because of extremely low wages and unfairly high interest.
Also, typically, the amount of debt remaining at any time is kept from the family members.

Soccer balls

Soccer, or "football" as it is known in most countries, is the world's most popular sport. Not
surprisingly, the soccer ball industry is a multimillion dollar industry. Most of the world's soccer
balls are produced in the Sialkot region of Pakistan. Pakistan is a country with a population of
140 million people. Forty-one percent of the population is age 15 or younger.. The Sialkot region
of Pakistan has been famous for producing soccer balls for at least 80 years. Although some balls
are machine-made, the best soccer balls are hand-stitched. Hand-stitching the panels of a ball
together are a very labor-intensive process and are where children have been found working.
Stitchers sew together the panels of a soccer ball and glue in the inflatable bladder. They are
employed by subcontractors, typically on a piece rate basis, and may work in a stitching center,
small village workshop, or in homes.

In 1996, an ILO study in the Sialkot region estimated that more than 7,000 Pakistani children
between the ages of 5 and 14 stitched balls on a regular, full-time basis; some worked as long as
10 to 11 hours a day. In addition, large numbers of children worked part-time outside of school
hours. On average, these children were paid between 20 to 22 Pakistani rupees per ball, or about
$0.50 to $0.55. The average worker can stitch two or three balls per day. Independent local
activists found that many of these children were working in bondage to their employers to pay
off their parents' debts. Thus, they and their families were unable to escape their labor
obligations, and the children were unable to attend school, ensuring that as adults they would
continue to suffer in poverty and possible continued debt bondage.

Slavery:

Slavery is where one person is owned by and made to work for another person without having
any say over what happens to them. Slaves are held against their will from the time of their
capture, purchase, or birth, and are not allowed to leave or to refuse to work.

Child trafficking:
Child trafficking is the illegal trading (buying, selling and movement) of children for labour or
sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked for many reasons, including forced labour,
prostitution and recruitment as child soldiers and beggars.

Debt bondage:

Debt bondage is forced labour, where work is exchanged to pay off loans that people cannot pay
off with money or goods. For example, a poor family may hand over their child to someone to
pay off their debt, and that child will have to work for years until the debt is cleared.

Serfdom:

Serfdom is when a person is forced to live and work on land belonging to another person, often
with little or no pay.

Forced labor:

Forced labor is when someone is made to work against their wishes. For example, Children in
armed conflict are forced to fight or to work as cooks, porters and messengers. These children
are abused and exploited, often being forced to kill or maim other human beings.

The sexual exploitation of children (prostitution, pornography and pornographic

performances):

Sexual exploitation is the mistreating, abusing and/or taking advantage of someone for personal
gain and profit, by involving them in prostitution or commercial sexual activity. Prostitution is
the exchange of sexual activities for money.

Children around the world, girls and boys, are exploited sexually, used by adults for sex or used
in sexual images (pornography) or performances. They may be bought and sold into marriage,
prostitution or slavery – in both developing and industrialized countries. Children are also
kidnapped and then trafficked across borders and then sold to be prostitutes in foreign countries.

This form of child labour has serious short and long term consequences. Children are at a high
risk of physical abuse, malnutrition and sexually transmitted diseases. It is extremely difficult for
children to get out of this situation and very hard for them to deal with what they have
experienced physically and mentally.

The involvement of children in illicit activities, for example, the production and trafficking
of drugs:

Illicit activities are illegal activities or crimes.

Producing and trafficking drugs:

Producing and trafficking drugs is an illicit activity that often involves children. Trafficking is
illegal trading (buying or selling). Children might do this against their will or with the belief that
this will give them status and money. Children who produce or traffic drugs are at great risk of
abuse and many also become addicted to drugs at a very young age.

Children are also involved in other crimes as defined in national laws, such as buying stolen
goods, shoplifting, robbery, hijacking cars, theft and burglary. They may be forced with threats
and violence to take part in criminal activities, or be under pressure to find money for their
survival and that of their family. Some children get involved in crime through gangs, or because
they think this is a way to obtain respect.

Organized beggary:

Street children, runaways or children living in poverty are also used in organized beggary.
Children are sometimes even intentionally disfigured to attract more money from passersby, and
they may be beaten if they don’t manage to collect enough money.

Children involved in illicit activities are often exposed to violence, which can severely affect
their mental and physical development. In addition, they may not develop good social skills and
are much more likely to suffer from depression, alcohol and drug addictions and identity
difficulties and become juvenile delinquents.

Automobile workshops

Child labor is deeply rooted and extremely extensive in Pakistan. The problem of Child Labour
in District Multan is quite high and abnormal. Various studies have shown that the large number
of children in different age group has been employed in various shops, like Cycle repair
workshop, Cars work shop, Motor bike work shop, Trucks work shop, mechanical and electrical
workshop. Rickshaw workshop and other places. This study explores the socioeconomic
determinants of child labor in automobile workshops. The majority of the children were poor and
they had no education or little education. Their parents had little education and were poorly paid
jobs, unemployed or deceased. So they had to send their child’s to automobile shops to earn their
livings.

Mining

Gold mining is extremely dangerous work for children. Yet still today, tens of thousands are
found in the small-scale gold mines. Children work both above and underground. In the tunnels
and mineshafts they risk death from explosions, rock falls, and tunnel collapse. They breathe air
filled with dust and sometimes toxic gases. Above ground, children dig, crush, mill, and haul ore
– often in the hot sun. Some stand for hours in water, digging sand or silt from riverbeds and
then carrying bags of mud on their heads or backs to sieving and washing sites. In all mining
sites, there is risk of falling down open shafts or into pits that are scattered around the areas. Like
adults, children suffer the effects of noise and vibration, poor ventilation and lighting, exhaustion
and overexertion. But children are particularly vulnerable to exposure to dust and chemicals
because their systems are still developing. The result can be serious respiratory conditions (such
as silicosis), constant headaches, hearing and sight problems, joint disorders and various
dermatological, muscular and orthopedic ailments and wounds, jeopardizing both their mental
and physical long-term health.

Mixing pesticides

Children are much more vulnerable to chemicals exposure than adults for reasons ranging from
metabolism to maturity and risk assessment capacity. The smaller size and low body weight, the
skin-surface-area/body weight ratio, different patterns or habits in drinking and eating. Because
their organs are still developing, children’s ability to successfully detoxify and excrete toxins is
lower than adults’. In addition, children have a lower capacity to assess risks and often cannot
read warning labels. some children mix and apply these pesticides. Children who work or live
around pesticides face additional risks to be poisoned. Potential health consequences Evidence
shows that occupational exposure to pesticides can result in both chronic and acute health effects
for adults. Pesticides are particularly hazardous for developing children. Exposure to pesticides
and other chemicals can damage brain functions, behavior and mental health, reproductive
systems and may cause cancer. Children handling, mixing, spraying agrochemicals, or being
exposed to pesticides in other ways can suffer from injuries and illnesses

 Children working in agriculture have far greater incidence rates of acute occupational
pesticide-related illnesses than children working in other sectors
 Childhood occupational exposure to pesticides may result in significant neurological
dysfunction, including motor and attention deficits, difficulties in concentration,
difficulties in remembering and understanding, numbness, extreme dizziness, headache,
blurred vision, and depression.
 Young boys occupationally exposed to pesticides face the risk of abnormal sexual
development and problems with the synthesis of necessary sex hormones.
 Exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of leukemia in childhood as well as
increasing the risk of developing cancer later in life.

Fisheries:
In the fisheries and aquaculture sector, children engage in a wide variety of activities, both in
capture fishing and aquaculture and in all associated down and upstream operations, for example,
processing, marketing, net making and boatbuilding. Children also perform household chores in
their fishing and fish-farming families and communities. Child labor appears to be particularly
widespread in the small and medium-scale sectors of the informal economy. When child labor is
used as cheap labor to cut fishing costs, not only may it be harmful to children’s development, it
can also have a negative effect on the sustainability of the fishery activity, and the economy

Glass factories:

The boys who worked in the glass factories worked long and strenuous hours at jobs which
required cramped conditions for long periods of time.  The boys also worked for hours in the
sweltering heat of the furnace rooms, which were extremely hot during the summer months when
the majority of child labor was used.  The factories were primarily located in the northern and
western parts of the state and were separated into three divisions.  The first being those that
created window glass, the second being those who created cast and rolled glass and the third and
final being those that made bottles and table wears.  The first two divisions were the most labor
intensive and because of this there was no child labor used, making the third division the primary
user of child labor. 

There were girls who worked in the glass factories, most worked in the packing rooms sitting on
the floor as they packed away the days objects into boxes for shipments.  Very young girls could
be employed to work the packing rooms because the work was less labor intensive.  However,
the young boys and men who worked in the factories alongside of the girls were not known for
their clean and wholesome language, the girls were exposed to immorality and bad influences
whenever they worked.  While they worked long hours like the boys, their jobs were much less
strenuous.  Most of the boys would work on a schedule where they worked the morning shift for
a week and then switched to the night shift for a week.  Those who worked the evening shift
would often be let off work after 3 A.M., who would wait hours for a car to take them home and
then could be seen on the streets as early as 9 A.M. the same morning, the lack of restful sleep
wore down the young boys who required many more hours of sleep than they were getting.

It is the greed of the parents and the indifference of the managers of the factories that deprive the
children of an education.  An education that would have provided them with not only a greater
intelligence, but possibly with better wages and a greater efficiency they would have attained had
they attended school.  Ignorance on the part of the parents and on part of the public in general,
who either lack the knowledge of child labor laws, the parents, or lack the knowledge that child
labor was a serious issue in the rural south, the public.
References:

1. file:///C:/Users/Track%20Computers/Downloads/Documents/i3318e.pdf
2. file:///C:/Users/Track%20Computers/Downloads/Documents/wcms_210582.pdf
3. file:///C:/Users/Track%20Computers/Downloads/Documents/200606_CL%20stone
%20quarrying-overview.pdf
4. file:///C:/Users/Track%20Computers/Downloads/Documents/200606_Child%20labour
%20in%20gold%20%20mining%20010606.pdf
5. https://www.ilo.org/ipec/Campaignandadvocacy/Youthinaction/C182-Youth-orientated/
worstforms/lang--en/index.htm