Topic:
Child Labour in Pakistan

Hopefully you all are doing well 👍.So this week we are given a group project .In this project the major task is to identify the social problem upon which all the members get agreed .
So , after discussion we finalized one of the social problem . social problem is "CHILD LABOUR IN PAKISTAN" that is a major issue in Pakistan.

Now the most important question is that what is child labour?
According to ILO( international labour organisation)
"The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:
is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and/or
interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school obliging them to leave school prematurely or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work".

Child labour in Pakistan:

June 12 is recognized as a day of child labour internationally.

PAKISTAN has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, yet no serious efforts have been made to promote literacy. As a consequence, we face several problems, including child labour. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated in 2005 that there would be 10 to 12 million child workers in Pakistan by 2010-11. But according to an All-Pakistan Labour Force survey, this number has doubled to about 21 million child workers. It shows the gravity of the situation. The main reason is poverty, while the low literacy rate has also contributed to the problem to a large extent.

According to the above survey, over 21 million child labourers between the age of 10 and 14 years are working in the country.

Out of which 27 per cent are girls and 73 per cents are boys. Children who are our future are uneducated, and parents treat them as a burden.

The last National Child Labour Survey in Pakistan was in 1996, which indicated there were 3.3m children between the ages of five and 14 working in the country. New data on child labour has been compiled through the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2014-15 to obtain more recent and reliable estimates of child labour in Pakistan.

The LFS reveals that 5.24m children (10-17 years), representing 14pc of the total children in this age group, are in employment. Not all children in employment are considered child labour. The number of minors involved in child labour in the entire age range, ie 10-17 years, is 3.7m.

In Pakistan, 3.7m minors between the ages of 10 and 17 years are involved in child labour.
The federal and provincial governments need to follow a three-pronged strategy to curb child labour: provision of free, compulsory and quality basic education at least up to the minimum age for admission to work; adoption and enforcement of laws and policies, with cooperation between labour inspection and education systems; and establishment of a social protection system.

So in order to clarify the concept of child labour,also to find out the reason of child labour and to ensure that this social problem is very common in Pakistan we have taken the interviews of children that are basically involved in child labour from different cities and area’s of Pakistan .

Name: Suhail
Age: 9 years
Job: Helper at Mechanic Shop
Area: Mustafa Abad, Kasur
Reason:
1) Father is Dead
2) Mother is doing nothing
3) His Family is Very Poor He Earn Rs. 150 Daily
4) His Elder brother is also Mechanical Senior helper. Family members: 5
Father
Mother
1 sister
2 brothers

His name is Muhammad Abbas
He is 9 years old ! He is currently studying in 5th standard.
He is selling eggs for more then 1 year last season he sold eggs to help her family or to earn some pocket money. There is no pressure on him to that so! He is doing because he wants to help his family.
No he is free to continue his studies if he doesn't want to work.

REASON:
Yeah his Father is a painter but he has less work to do in recent years but he didn’t force his children to sell eggs! He just allowed them to sell eggs. OVERALL there is no such pressure on him to do that particular job .He is free to continue his studies.

Name:Asad Allah Ditta
Age: 10 years
Job: refuse or trash collector
Area: sagghian Lahore
Reason of doing that job:
1) Divorce of parents
2) single mother ( she also collect garbage)
3) financial crisis
4) He is doing that job because family is big but financial resources are limited .
FAMILY MEMBERS: 9
Mother
6 sister's
2 brothers

*Saim and Faraz*
Basically from Arifwala living in Wapda Town Lahore
Both of them working in a hotel at day time for Rs 250 per day from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm.
After that they start selling Eggs at night time and goes home at about 11:00 pm or 12:00 pm when they sold all eggs .

REASON:

The reason of doing job is financial issue and poverty and their mother also work in a house as sweeper for 0nly 7k per month.
As per them they want to study but cannot afford education.
Saim has not gone to school ever but Faraz the elder one joined school and left from class 4 after death of their father (Khuda maghfirat kry) and started working.
They also go from home to hotel without any transportation medium by walk .

Name: Khalil Mirza
Age: 11 years.

REASON:
He got his studies till 5 class. Then he quit his studies because of financial instability. Now, he is doing a job at a garment shop to financially support his family.

Name: Umar. Age: 12 years
Doing labour at garment shop
Didn’t enroll himself in school because his father has died.

REASON :

Due of economic hardships and poverty and his father death, his family rely on his income to meet basic needs. There is no one in his family who is earning and he is the breadwinner of his family.

His name is Zahid.
He is 11 years old.
He quit his studies because his parents can't afford his fee😓 and also he is not willing to continue his studies as well!
He is doing this job from more than 2 years!

REASON:
He is doing this job to get his self busy and he also said that my father is jobless and he can’t afford our expenses i am doing this to earn pocket money and can give some money home! His family is not much stable he has two more brother one is elder and other one is younger! His younger brother is currently studying and enjoying his time Bcz he is 7 years old.
If he doesn’t work for his self then it may cause financial problems for his family. He gets punished by his father if he doesn’t want to go on work.

Name: Imran tariq
Age: 7 years
Job: Helper at chaana chat Shop
Area: Depalpur Chowk okara
Reasons:
1) Father is drug addicted
2) Mother sew the dresses of people at very low cost
3) poverty
4) financial resources are not enough to fulfil the needs of family
Family members: 7
Father
Mother
4 sisters
1 brother

(Child Ahmad Asghar refused to capture his pic)

Name: Ahmad Asghar
Age :11 years old
Job: work in the fields of other people
Area: 28 chak village ( near to okara city)
Reason :
1) poverty
2) both father mother also work in the fields of other people
3) financial crisis
Family members: 5
Father
Mother
2 brothers
1 sister

Name: Ahsan
Age: 14 years
He got his studies till 6 class. Then he quit his studies in lockdown. He is now doing a job at a Nashta point.

REASON:

The main reason in leaving studies is that he is not willing to study because he finds study difficult. Also, there is no strictness by his parents. So he is interested in doing labor job more than studies.

Name: Naeem.
Age: 14 years.

REASON:
He got his studies till 4 class. His father is paralyzed. So he quit his studies and now he and his elder brother do jobs to support their family.
His elder brother is rickshaw driver and he is selling cups.
( Also he refused to capture him)

Name: Azmaan
Age: 10 years

REASONS:
He is Working at shoes shop. His brother also works on the same shop. He didn’t study because of inadequate educational opportunities and financial constraints. Usually earns 8000 rupees per month and support his family financially.

Assessment from these interviews:

Through these interviews anyone can get easily an idea that how much this issue is common in Pakistan & how it is effecting the lives of children.Through these interviews we learned that poverty & financial crises are some of the major issues behind the child labour.If children are treated badly and brought up in a harsh environment, they would obviously become aggressive. A major issue in Pakistan, which needs to be solved, is child labour. Undoubtedly poverty is the main reason which compels children to work 15 hours a day to make ends meet.Child labour can never be eliminated until and unless our society and, more importantly, the government shows determination and takes firm actions to overcome this issue.

ACTIONS MUST TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT:

Government can take following actions

1)IMPROVING EDUCATION

provision of free education through abolition of all school fees, and introduction of inclusive education strategies.

2)SKILL DEVELOPMENT:

Children in the higher age group (15-17 years) need to be given skills training through provincial technical and vocational education and training authorities and the National Vocational & Technical Training Commission. There should be programmes for apprenticeships and training of those children earlier involved in labour (rehabilitative measures) to facilitate their transition from child labour to decent youth employment.

3)Strengthening Labour Inspection:

Greater collaboration between the enforcement agencies and labour departments is required for effective implementation of child labour conventions. A child labour monitoring system must be developed, for that complements the work of labour inspectorates/labour departments by monitoring those areas of hazardous work that are difficult to reach through conventional labour inspection systems such as workers in the informal economy (eg home-based workers).

4) Establishing Social Protection:

There is a need to establish adequate social protection floors such as the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, school feeding programmes as well as public employment schemes (NREGA in India is a good example to replicate in order to ensure livelihood to people especially in rural areas). Punjab has already established its Social Protection Authority to “provide a comprehensive, efficient, effective and inclusive social protection system to the poor and vulnerable”. Other provinces can follow suit and establish similar institutions in line with the ILO Recommendation 202 (Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012) on the subject.

We learned that,
"No Child Labor, Yes Bright Future"
A child should be taught to LEARN, not forced to EARN. Children need LOVE and Care, child labour is not FAIR. Let the child earn KNOWLEDGE, not MONEY. Raise your VOICE and HAND so that child labour can be BANNED👍.