By: IQRA NAWAZISH, SHAHMEER KHAN, KANEEZ ZEHRA
Working since he was 6 years old and now a nine year old boy Asim is part of child labor in Pakistan. Majority of the children here are made to work at early ages and in Pakistan, any child under the age of eighteen who's working is considered to be child labor, as it turns out to be harmful for the children morally, socially, physically and mentally, yet the number just won't stop increasing. He is the middle child in 5 siblings and lives in shelter made out of recycled material (jhonprri). He's been working for past 3 years and works 12 hours each day with only one day off each week. He's spent most of his time working at a car garage and earns Rs.150 to Rs.200 per day but the meals are at the work. Major part of his income is taken by his mother to use it for house and food while he's given a bit of money, after all he's a child.
On being asked about his own plans regarding the future, we witnessed a blank face, due to the lack of education and exposure this child had no idea what were his options, he had no dreams and no direction. However, he was aware of one thing, school, education. On trying to give out a message to his parents and people who can make a difference he said that he want's to study, just like other priviledged children he sees every day. These children are as human as any previlidged children are, they deserve as much of love, care and wealth as much as others do. They deserve schools, clean clothes, exposure, direction and definitely no hard work.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan stated that there 11 million children working in this country and half of these children are below the age of 10. Since then the age has kept dropping, in 1994 the age dropped to 8 years old children and as we reached 1996 children of age 7 were at work. One quarter of the work force of Pakistan has children work force. In Hyderabad, children of age 4 and 5 are made to work; mostly they make and sell bracelets and bangles. 1 set of bangles contains at least 50 to 65 bangles and they get just Rs.40 for 12 sets which take up almost 3 days to sell, but this situation doesn’t only exist in Hyderabad, almost every city of Pakistan shares a similar story.
Causes of Child Labor:
Poverty and over-population are two the main reasons causing child labor. These both are directly proportional to each other and grow simultaneously, increasing the child labor. Families who are poor usually have more children, hence mood stomachs to feed and only one sole earner, clearly the balance cannot be maintained which forces young children to work and support the family.
Another reason for increasing child labor in Pakistan is the lack of education, especially in the poorer section of the families. Being illiterate themselves they barely understand the importance of education and without any hesitation or second thought choose the same future for their children and force them into any type of work that pays and feeds. The few people, who fortunately have a bit of exposure and want their children to study, can't really afford it.
Pakistan, along with many other developing nations, has a lot of children working in the garment and textile manufacturing industries. The reason behind this is the inhuman and business minded factory owners who reduce the production cost by hiring children instead of adults, because the children are paid a bit too less and are forced to work a bit too more. Another reason that encourages the factory owners to do so is that they are aware of the fact that children are unaware of their rights and will never stand up against them.
There are several families migrating from rural areas to the cities every day in Pakistan, they do so in search of better living prospects, but as they are uneducated considering the rural situation, they are unable to get any decent jobs which leads them to work as labors and force their children into it too in order to feed the increasing members.
In certain villages of Pakistan people who are under debt, they sell their children off for a small amount of money or give them away to repay the debt, which follows the children to their adulthood.
Child Labor Found mostly in Pakistan
-Forms of Child Labor
Mentioned below are the main forms of child labor:
1) Slavery: It is defined as a scenario in which a person and made to work and is owned by another person, not only that but the enslaved person has no sat at all, regarding anything being done to them or being asked to do. Slaves are captured, purchased or birthed by another slave, they are kept and abused against their will and interest but they cannot refuse to work or leave.
2) Child Trafficking: It can be defined as an illegal act where children are being traded, bought and sold for two main reasons: 1) Child labor and 2) Sexual exploitation. Most of these children are abducted and then are forced to work long hours, to join prostitution and are also appointed as beggars and child soldiers.
3) Debt Bondage: It is when poor families who are unable to pay off their debts give away their children to work as a labor in exchange of paying loans. This can go on for years and child's life might be spent doing the same.
4) Forced Labor: When someone is being forced to work against their will, is known as Forced labor. Many children are compelled to fight in armed conflict, to work as cook, messengers or even porters, along with the hard work they are abused, assaulted and exploited
5) Sexual Exploitation: This includes prostitution, pornography and pornographic affiliations. It can be defined as abusing and mistreating children into sexual activities such as prostitution or commercial sexual activities. Children are also kidnapped and trafficked around the world to be sold, or used for sexual labor.
6) Beggars: Thrown away poor kids, street children, runaways and kidnapped children, massive number of these kids are being used for begging, there are organizations working behind the beggars, who force children to do so, are beaten violently if they deny or don’t earn enough and are deliberately disabled to gain attraction of people and their sympathy.
-Myths regarding Child Labor
There are four myths related to child labor, which are:
The very first myth is that Child Labor is only the problem in developing countries, which is not entirely true. Child labor can be witnessed all around the world, even in the United States; high numbers of children are involved in agricultural labor, mostly are immigrants or belong to a minority.
The second popular myth says that child labor cannot be eliminated unless the poverty does not end. According to UNICEF dangerous and life threatening labor can and should be eliminated regardless of the poverty being reduced or not. The climate is already changing. At the highest level, governments have begun to move on the issue, realizing that they have to make good the commitments they assumed in ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child. At the local level, activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are exploring creative ways to remove children from dangerous work situations and provide alternatives for them.
Myth number three projects and image that most of the children working as labors, work in sweatshops and industries exporting goods. The child labors in Pakistan manufacture Soccer ball so that it can be used by other children to play with, there are only 5% of children working in export sectors. Majority of the children are a part of many local and dangerous sectors, including streets for begging and crimes, drugs and killing and many other things.
Myth four is that the only way to make headway against child labour is for consumers and governments to apply pressure through sanctions and boycotts. While international commitment and pressure are important, boycotts and other sweeping measures can only affect export sectors, which are relatively small exploiters of child labour. Such measures are also blunt instruments with long-term consequences that can actually harm rather than help the children involved. UNICEF advocates a comprehensive strategy against hazardous child labour that supports and develops local initiatives and provides alternatives - notably compulsory primary education of high quality - for liberated children.
-Effects of Child Labor
Some of the effects are:
* Most of them go through abuse, cuts, burns, fractures and also are excessively scared along with having nightmares at night.
* Sexual exploitation by adults that includes, rape, prostitution which leads to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV Aids, abortions and deaths.
* All their lives they stay away from love and care which makes them hopeless and loner.
* Another scary aspect is that they never take care of what they wear, where they live and what they eat. This causes several other problems and complications.
* Suicide is very common among these children, they get tired of their lives or are unable to bare it any further, which compels them to end their lives and rest in peace.
* The scariest consequence of all this is that there is a generation coming up from this forced laboring people which has gone through same and lacks social, mental and physical education.
-Policies related to Child Labor
Improve incentives
•Make school attendance more available—more schools, flexible schooling
•Decrease or exclude school fees
•Remove discrimination against girls in school
•Advance educational quality—teaching, materials
•Improve basic facilities—for example, access to clean water
•Remove restrictions
•Diminish poverty
•Social safety nets
•Cash or food linked to contribution in education
•Improve access to credit
•Better labor market working
•Guard and rehabilitation services
•Remove children from dangerous and nastiest forms of child labor
•Enforce health and safety and other employment standards
•Provide access to education and health services
•Offer professional training and other rehabilitation
•Introduce and enforce child labor laws
•Introduce and enforce required education laws
Child Labor UNICEF DATA:
-Laws regarding Child Labor
The Consitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan clearly says, ''No child below theage of fourteen shall be engaged in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment." and "All forms of forced labour and traffic inhuman beings are prohibited." There are a number of laws that prohibit use of children in several dangerous and hard working conditions. Below mentioned are a few of the most important laws:
•The Factories Act 1934.
•The West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance1969.
•The Employment of Children Act 1991.
•The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1992.
•The Punjab Compulsory Education Act 1994. This is so sad that out of the population of 160 million people in Pakistan, there are almost 10 million children, under the age of 18 who are working as labors. Below mentioned are a few aspects that define child labor accroding to The International Labor Organization (ILO):
•When a child starts working at a very early age.
•When a child has to work more than it's capacity for long hours.
•When a child is forced into working due to physical, mental and financial pressure.
•When a child is being paid almost nothing compared to the work being taken.
References:
http://labourwatchpakistan.com/child-labour-n-pakistan https://paycheck.pk/main/labour-laws/fair-treatment/minors-and-youth/child-labour
https://dunyanews.tv/en/aspecialreport/320628-pakistan-3rd-in-child-and-forced-labour-ilo
https://www.don.com/news/1264451
https://dl-mail.ymail.com/ws/download/mailboxes...
www.ilo.org
