Child labour in Pakistan

Child Labour In Pakistan

need for eliminating child labour in Pakistan Child labour and child trafficking negatively affect human capital development and the over all national development agenda. When children do not go to school they are denied the knowledge and skills needed for national development. Educating children, rather than forcing them to work, could yield enormous economic benefits for developing nations, through increased productivity and human capital. Benefits of education however large, may not be enough to convince poverty struck families to stop sending children to work as the concern over household survival outweighs that of children’s future earnings, therefore this is the problem that Pakistan faces today. (2)

Situation of child labour in Pakistan Pakistan has a per-capita income of approximately $1900. A middle class person in Pakistan earns around $5 a day on average.The average Pakistani has to feed nine or ten people with their daily wage. Further to that there is also the high inflation rate to contend with. (3) As of 2008, 17.2% of the total population lives below the poverty line, which is the lowest figure in the history of Pakistan(4) Poverty levels in Pakistan appear to necessitate that children work in order to allow families to reach their target take‐home pay.(5)

The low cost of child labor gives manufacturers a significant advantage in the Western marketplace, where they undersell their competitors from countries prohibiting child labor, often by improbable amounts.(6)

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated in the 1990s that 11 million children were working in the country, half of those under the age of ten. In 1996, the median age for a child entering the work force was seven, down from eight years old 2 years prior. It was estimated that one quarter of the countries work force was made up of child laborers. (23)

Pakistan has recently passed laws greatly limiting child labor and indentured servitude—but those laws are universally ignored, and some 11 million children, aged four to fourteen, keep that country's factories operating, often working in brutal and squalid conditions(1)

As of 2005–2006, it is estimated that 37 per cent of working boys were employed in the wholesale and retail industry in urban areas, followed by 22 per cent in the service industry and 22 per cent in manufacturing. As for the girls 48 per cent were employed in the service industry while 39 per cent were employed in manufacturing. In rural areas, 68 per cent of working boys were joined by 82 per cent of working girls. In the wholesale and retail industry the percentage of girl were 11 per cent followed by 11 per cent in manufacturing. (24)

Child labor in Pakistan is perhaps most rampant in a north-western province called Sialkot, near the border with Kashmir,, which is an important production centre for exports goods such as sporting goods. (10) Thousands of Pakistani children, many under the age of 10, get less than 10p an hour stitching soccer balls for export around the world. About three-quarters of all the high-quality footballs used in international competitions are made here (13) where child labour is perhaps the most rampant(In 1994, it pumped the equivalent of $385 million into the Pakistan economy)(22).

Government Policies on Child Labour The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan states: "No child below the age of fourteen, shall be engaged in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment." Also, "All forms of forced labour and traffic in human beings is prohibited." A number of laws contain provisions prohibiting child labour or regulating the working conditions of child and adolescent workers. The most important laws are:(2) The Factories Act 1934. The West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance 1969. The Employment of Children Act 1991(8) The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1992. The Punjab Compulsory Education Act 1994(2)

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