FACTS OF CHILD LABOUR

Group Members:
INTRODUCTION
Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world
and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of
young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that
215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are
considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of
jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large
numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and
domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities like the drug trade and prostitution or
other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.
Although children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history, child
labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours
in dangerous factory conditions for very little money. Children were useful as laborers because
their size allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit,
children were easier to manage and control and perhaps most importantly, children could be
paid less than adults. Child laborers often worked to help support their families, but were
forced to forgo an education. Nineteenth century reformers and labor organizers sought to
restrict child labor and improve working conditions, but it took a market crash to finally sway
public opinion. During the Great Depression, Americans wanted all available jobs to go to adults
rather than children
Child labour is an incredibly intricate trouble with its root in the Pakistan. It begins from
poverty, lack of teaching and health services and improved avenues of employment.
Eradication of child labour is certainly a dreadful task. Rising of poverty, check on population
growth is the fundamentals. Education and health services national ethics is necessary. This can
be done from first to last mass communication concerning the harms of the problem in the
media and running anti-child labour movements.
A country such as Pakistan, which constantly struggles to boost its exports, should now evaluate
its promise to the removal of child labour as it is currently more directly linked with its exports.
In Pakistan children aged 5-14 are over 40 million. For the duration of the last year, the Federal
Bureau of Statistics launched the results of its survey supported by ILO’s IPEC (International
Program on the Elimination of Child Labour).
According to these finding 3.8 million children age group of 5-14 years are working in Pakistan
out of total 40 million children in this age group which is drastic issue in Pakistan.
Familiarity about the latest fact has shown that withdrawing children from the most horrible
forms is feasible, however cannot be successful exclusive of a well-built political will. This ‘will’
must be fixed in a national policy that addresses issues such as better legislation and
enforcement; enhanced methodologies for classify these children; understanding raising at all
levels of society and the provision of feasible alternatives for the children and their families, as
well as rehabilitation measures.
Experts and officials said Pakistan faced the ‘worst’ form of child labour where workers were
subjected to physical and mental torture .They said there should be zero tolerance for forced
child labour with a national policy against it.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Child Labour is an important and a serious global issue through which all and poor countries of the world
are directly or indirectly affected, but, it is very common in 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.  Child labour number in Punjab province is approximately 1.2 million, which
represents close to 60 percent of the province’s child population. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was
the second highest in the list with about a million uneducated children in employment. Sindh,
with 298,000 child workers was third while the figure of just 14,000 in Baluchistan is probably
due to the very low number of reporting households.

PROBLEM:
The problem is that nearly a third of the child population in Pakistan country is engaged in
earning a living or supplementing family income. Out of about 70 million children, 25 million are
said to be part of the workforce. That is bad enough for the children who are deprived of their
basic right to education and a wholesome childhood, the situation is unhelpful for the
developmental process as well.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this research is to aware the Government that Pakistan faced the ‘worst’ form
of child labour where workers were subjected to physical and mental torture.
 QUESTIONNARIES
We are students of Air University. We are conducting a survey on one of the
biggest issue around the world that’s none other than “Child Labour”. And we
want your opinion about Child labour.

Name __________________ Occupation ________________

Gender Male Female

AGE ___________________

1) International law of child labour implemented strictly?

YES NO

2) Children’s unawareness of their rights leads them to do work?

YES NO

3) International sex trade is the cause of child labour?

YES NO

4) Development in science and technology is increasing factor of child labour?

YES NO

5) Limited choices for the women in backward areas lead them to do work in their
childhood?
YES NO

6) Sudden death of guardian leads the children to do work?

YES NO

7) Illiterate guardians enforce their children to do work?

YES NO

8) Family problems are the increasing factor of child labour?

YES NO

DISCUSSION:
1) International law of child labor implemented strictly?

“Laws are the guarantee to the safe and Peaceful world.”

The first question that they were asked was about the implementation of law of child
labour. Out of 16 People interviewed 8 think that law of child labour is implemented
properly but 8 were on the other hand, they don’t think so. Response to this question
shows that 50% people don’t take the implementation of the child labour law as a cause
of child labour but 50% take it as a responsible factor. Our team was shocked to know
about a child who was working in firm at the age of 6 year.
 Question 1

50% 50 %

YES NO

2) Children’s unawareness of their rights leads them to do work?

“The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children.”

In the response to the second question that they were asked about the unawareness of
rights of child labour, 50% of the interviewed people were considered it the cause of
child labour but 50% were not taking it the factor of child labour.
 Question 2

40% YES
NO

60%

3) International sex trade is the cause of child labour?

The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million human
trafficking victims worldwide and 4.5 million people trapped in forced sex trafficking
around the globe.

On this question we interviewed 16 people out of them 63% were not taking sex trade
as a cause of child labour and 37% people taking it as a factor of child labour. In the
response to this question people were not taking it for child labour, they think that they
took children for their body organs.
 Question 3

37%
YES
NO

63%

4) Development in science and technology is increasing factor of child labour?

All this modern technology just makes people try to do everything at once. We are stuck with
technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.
25% people were taking development in science as the responsible factor of the child labour all
over the world. But 75% people were not taking it as a factor they think that development in
science is not cause of child labour. They even think that in the development in science will give
more opportunities to reduce child labour.
 Quetion 4

25%

YES
NO

75%

5) Limited choices for the women in backward areas lead them to do work in their childhood?
― Muhammad Ali Jinnah said:
“No nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men.
No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are
two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great
competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the
women.” Out of 16 people who were interviewed 75% people think that limited choices for
women in backward areas give them approach to work in their own houses. Swing clothes are
one of the work that women do in their childhood at the age of school.
 Question 5

25%

YES
NO

75%

CONCLUSION:
First of all we are going to summarize the data by presenting a pie chart which depicts whether
the respondents response was in favor of our question or not. The law says that primary
education is compulsory for everyone, but we all know that actions speak louder than words.
On the general level, the government must fulfill its responsibility of providing education to all,
an objective it is committed to under the UN Millennium Goals. In our survey mostly people
give answer in favors of our question. Out of 16 People interviewed 8 think that law of child
labor is implemented properly but 8 were on the other hand, they don’t think so. Child Labor is
a complex problem which demands a range of solutions. There is no better way to prevent child
Labor 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. 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, economic 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 disposa l

CONCLUSION

38% YES
NO

63%
SUGGESTIONS:
The law says that primary education is compulsory for everyone, but we all know that
actions speak louder than words. On the general level, the government must fulfill its
responsibility of providing education to all, an objective it is committed to under the UN
Millennium Goals. As a matter of fact, even in the developed countries governments
provide free basic education to all citizens.
The government now claims to be in the process of making substantial increases in the
education budget. In regards to the research that we conducted and the conclusions
that we drew from it, we have come up with the following recommendations that can
be implemented by the judiciary and the government.

 Provincial government should expedite legislation on child labor laws. These laws should
comprehensively ban child labor in both formal and informal economic sectors and
should be in line with Article 25A of the Constitution.
 The governments should enact legislation to grant domestic workers their rights; and
ban child domestic labor completely as one of the worst forms of child labor.
 Specialized child labor inspectors should be hired under the provincial child labor laws
to monitor underage employment. The Inspectors should be provided with adequate
resource and necessary legal provisions to monitor the informal economic sector.
 The minimum wage policy should be extended to the informal sector to provide relief to
poor workers who are forced to send their children work.
 The provinces should take immediate steps to pass provincial legislation to abolish
bonded labor in the aftermath of the 18th Amendment.
 The relief camps for bonded laborers should be immediately recognized by the
government and basic amenities of life should be provided to the residents.
 The government should supply free books to government schools and should make the
level of government schools at par with that of private schools so that condition of
equality exists.
 The government should take notice of child labor as well and take strict action against
those responsible so that the future of Pakistan becomes safe.

Dr.Qaiser Bengali Said, "Making education cheap and

compulsory will be an effective tool for addressing the menace
of child labor rather than formulating prohibitive laws."