TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER NO.1

1.1 Introduction

CHAPTER NO. 2

2.1 Literature Review

CHAPTER NO. 3

3.1 Methodology

CHAPTER NO. 4

4.1 Results
4.2 Discussions

CHAPTER NO. 5

5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendations
5.3 References
 ABSTRACT:

In Pakistan, large employment opportunities, burgeoning population and the availability

of cheap labor might be the contributing factors for the increasing prevalence of child labor. A
literature review was conducted in 2007 that included published and unpublished literature since
2000. Various organizations working in the field were also covered, while the perception of the
child laborers was covered through three focus group discussions. Common health issues among
the child laborers in Pakistan included respiratory illnesses, fever and generalized pains, as well
as drug and sexual abuse. Organizations working for child labor could be broadly categorized
into those working for legal advice and advocacy; those generating statistics; and those that are
providing interventions. Discussion with children showed that irrespective of the immediate
cause, the underlying determinant for child labor was poverty. The best practices identified
included evening schools and drop-in centers for working children with provision for skill-based
education and basic health facilities. There is need to have more such centers.
Keywords: Child labor, Child health, Situation analysis, Best practices, Pakistan.
 CHAPTER NO 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION:

Child labor has emerged as a serious, widespread and growing problem in many parts of the
world. Asia has a large number of children employed as child laborers. Child Labor Survey 1996
reports that there are 3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in
Pakistan.
Developed countries have linked trade with child labor through the Harkin Bill and the
Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Agreement (1994), which banned the market manufactured
or mined goods produced in whole or in part by children less than 15 years of age. Pakistan is
also facing restrictions on some of its exports due to allegations of child labor.
However, Pakistan has enacted the Employment of Children Act of 1991, which has banned
employment of children below the age of 14 years.1 the problem of child labor persists even in
the presence of trade sanctions and legislation. In fact, trade restrictions and laws are only
demand side factors, and they can intensify the problem, which could result in children being
diverted to less desirable or more hazardous work, where it can flourish without being noticed.
Therefore, mishandling of this issue can make matters go from bad to worse. We should work in
a realistic way to deal with this complex issue. The policy makers, in order to combat child labor
effectively, need detailed information about child labor. It is therefore relevant to explore the
details about child laborers‟ socio economic profile in detail at the micro level. Further, factors
determining parent's decision to send their children to the labor market should be identified in
detail.
Keeping in view this background, the present study is an attempt to identify the socio economic
features of working and non-working children between the ages of 10-14 years. Moreover, conditions

of working children will also be examined in detail. This analysis would enable us to identify a
range of policy variables that could be used to address the problem of child labor. It will also
identify the parental characteristics of working and nonworking children, which is necessary for
the formulation of effective policies in reducing and eventually eliminating child labor in
Pakistan.
 CHAPTER NO. 2

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW:

The Constitution of Pakistan respects the children rights and provides for defending
children. According to the Constitution, no child under the age of fourteen shall be employed in
any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. (Online resource: www.Pakistani.org)
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2010) reports poverty, social attitudes, large family size
and low literacy rate as factors of child labor in Pakistan. Bhalotra & Heady (2003) and Dumas
ET, al. (2004) also connect the child labor with household poverty, lack of connectedness
between subsistence requirements and other income resources. Ahmed (1991) calculates the
reasons of child labor as poverty, illiteracy, survival, large families, rural and urban migration
and labor troubles. He also discusses the inadequacy of enforcement of elementary education
laws, very high birthrate and the lack of economic resources. This is the reason why he believes
the proportion of children in Pakistan as larger than most other countries. A research conducted
by Ray (1988) investigates the comparison between Pakistan and Peru in terms of child labor. He
examines some similarities between both countries, for example the impact of child‟s age,
gender and level of education for females in the household are quite similar in both countries. On
the other hand, in description of dissimilarities he indicates that the household expenditure and
cultural impact are two important dissimilar variables in both countries. He also worked on the
comparison between Pakistan and Nepal (2001),a comparative research between Pakistan and
Ghana is conducted by Bhalotra, et al. (1997). Pakistan is multi-linguistic and diverse society.
Rana (2003) indicates a comparison between two cities (Faisalabad and Pakpattan) of Pakistani
Province Punjab. Barki and Fasih (1998) examine that the cultural and demographic disparities
among four provinces of Pakistan are the reasons why the determinant may differ across
provinces. This report investigates the intense condition of this issue in Pakistan. According to
the report the violence with child laborers is a worse problem in Pakistan that had been persistent
in year 2010. Most of the time, this type of violence is being unaccounted for and unnoticed. It is
also not even covered by labor laws. An NGO (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the
Child) estimated that nearly one million children (most of them were girls) were associated with
the working as domestic servants. Often time these Children during domestic serving are
victimized physically and sexually (HRCP, 2012). Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also
suggests some very considerable recommendations which are very remarkable for this research
to attain an appropriate research framework. According to HRCP (2012) Pakistan suffered
deadly natural disaster during last decade that destroyed the infrastructure. So it is very important
to give serious attention to recovery mechanism which has a connection with increase of child
labor. The report also recommends government to expedite restoration of schools destroyed in
natural disasters (horrible earthquake and floods) and in the conflict in the northwestern areas of
Pakistan.
Secondly the Human Rights Commission suggests giving full rights to provincial
governments to play their role in the elimination of child labor under the umbrella of 18th
amendment of Constitution. Third, explicit rules, regulations and policies against domestic child
and protecting house servants must be formulated. Fourth, there should be a new child labor
survey conducted to evaluate the existing condition and to develop properly the rules and
policies accordingly. And fifth, the government should develop special training for judges,
prison staff, probation officers, and police. (HRCP, 2012)
 CHAPTER NO. 3

3.1 MRTHODOLOGY:
This was a cross-sectional community based study. A total of 700 children were selected.
Areas surveyed included Commercial market, Pir Widhaee, Kamran Market, Tipu Road
Automobile Workshops, Airport road, Sawan, Murree Road (aka BB road), Saddar, China
Market, Food Street and some residential areas of district Rawalpindi.
In this study, hang for 09 months from January to September 2008, over 1000 child laborers
were identified at random and invited to participate in a questionnaire based study. A total of 700
children agreed to participate (over 300 were excluded owing to difficulties in speaking and
understanding or partly as they were afraid of their masters). Only those who understood the
nature of study, could answer questions being asked from them and agreed for consent were
included in the study. Demographic details of the child and details on child family members,
earning members, education status, reason for work at this age, total family income /month, total
money earned by child/month, place of work, nature of job, time spent at job punishment at
workplace were recorded on a structured Performa. Data collected was entered in computer for
analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Study was ethically reviewed and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee,
Foundation Medical University Rawalpindi.
 CHAPTER NO. 4

4.1 RESULTS:

A total of 700 working children between 4-18 years of age with a mean age of 13.5 years,
were enrolled. Male to female ratio was 5.4:1. Majority of the children had a family size of 5-8
members while 126 belonged to a family having 9-12. 634 children had 1-4 earning family
members while only 5 child laborers were from families having 10-12 earning members.
Regarding the education, 479 children out of 700 study population ever attended the school as
compared to 221 (32%) who never went to school. Majority of children (291, 42%) attended
school till primary level followed by preschool level (141, 20%) and only (67, 10%) could
continue till secondary level (Table 1). Details of various reasons for not attending or leaving
school are given in the table 2.
Two fifty eight (36.9%) children‟s families had monthly income of more than PKR 8000/
month, 210 (30%) PKR 6000-8000/ month, 167 (23.9%) PKR 4000-5000/ month and 63 (0.9%)
families were earning less than PKR 3000/ month. Data showed that majority (38.65) of children
worked in shops followed by workshops and homes 28.9% and 15.4% respectively. Nine percent
children worked as garbage collectors in streets.

Table no.4.1: Level of school attended by Children.

 Table no.4.2: Reasons for leaving/not attending school by the children.

Table No.4.3: Total working hours at workplace of children.

%age of
Children

Fig # 4.1: Punishment at work

 Figure No. 4.2: Punishments of Children

4.2 DISCUSSION:

According to UNICEF most working children are aged 11 to 14 years old, but as many as 60
million are between the ages of 5 and 11. In our study age of study population ranged from 4-18
years with a mean of 13.5 years. 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 Labor).
According to the findings, 3.8 million children of age group 5-14 years were working in Pakistan
out of total 40 million children in this age group; fifty percent of these economically active
children were in age group of 5 to 9 years10. Results of current study are in accordance with this.
Hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work as laborers due to the poverty before they
ever enter school and majority of them leave school in the middle of study to become laborers.
The problem of child labor is closely associated with poverty and underdevelopment. In a survey
of Pakistan‟s sports goods industry, over 72 percent of workers who did not attend school did so
because they could not afford school fees and hence in Pakistan, lack of educational facilities and
the socio-economic relevance of education is an essential factor that explains the increase in
child labor. (See Appendix)
 CHAPTER NO. 5

5.1 CONCLUSION:

Literature on child labor in Pakistan is scanty, making it tricky to focus on particular pushing
factors for child labor in Pakistan. One of the main themes that emerged from the literature
review is that poverty plays a basic role behind most of the health and social issues in the lives
of child laborers in Pakistan. In addition, lack of basic education of parents, norms and culture,
large family size and physical and verbal abuses by family members were the major factors
identified. Interventions are primarily led by NGOs in Pakistan.
Although it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions due to lack of research
in this area, but, some of the best practices identified through the study include, evening schools
and drop-in centers with provision of skill based education, basic health facilities, food and
washing/bathing facilities. However, there is need for greater number of such facilities in
locations to make them accessible for larger number of child laborers in Pakistan.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS:
In Pakistan, reinforcement of currently undergoing interventions by private and public
organizations is needed for the better implementation of such programmers at a larger scale.
Current support and collaboration of government with different NGOs working on child labor
issue is commendable and needs to be further emphasized.
Evening schools and drop-in centers for working children are the role model in such urban
settings and their numbers should be increased.
There is an immediate need for the measurement of the magnitude of child labor in Pakistan, and
an assessment of the health status of these children.
An adequate set of child-friendly laws and legislations are required for protection and well-being
of children, with emphasis on proper implementation and continuous monitoring.
There is need for continued advocacy involving all stakeholders.
Suggestions for a sustainable approach to eliminate child labor include elimination of hazardous
forms of child labor; better education; child labor should be considered an indicator of poverty
and child labor elimination should be part of the national poverty alleviation programmers; rural
unemployment needs to be tackled with more of agro-based industries so that labor influx into
urban areas is reduced which will thus reduce poverty; promotion of population control
programmers; and compulsory primary schooling laws should be enforced with proper facilities,
especially for girls.
5.3 REFERENCE:

Addison, T., Bhalotra, S., Coulter, F. and Heady, C. (1997) “Child Labor in Pakistan and
Ghana: a comparative study” Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, United
Kingdom.
Ahmed, Manzooruddin, (1991), “Child Labor-A Time to Reflect” UNICEF, Pakistan and
Zakat, Usher and Social Welfare Department, Govt. of Balochistan, Pakistan.
Ali, Karamt and Rana Ejaz Ali Khan, (2003), “Child Labor in Rural Areas of Pakistan-Some
Socioeconomic Determinants” Pakistan Economic and Social Review.
Barki, Abid.A and Fasih, Tazeen (1998) “Households„Non-leisure Time Allocation Children
and Determinants of Child Labor in Punjab, Pakistan” The Pakistan Development Review 37: 4
Part II, pp. 37:4, 899–914. Basu, K. and Van, P. (1998) “The Economics of Child Labor,”
American Economic Review, 88, 412–427.
Becchetti L., Trovato, G., (2005), “The determinants of child labor: the role of primary
product specialization”,CEIS Working Paper, n. 170 Labor Becker, G. S. (1965) “Theory of the
Allocation of Time”. Economic Journal 76, 493– 517.
Beegle, Kathleen, Rajeev Dehejia, and Roberta Gatti (2005) “Why Should We Care about
Child Labor? The Education, Labor Market, and Health Consequences of Child Labor.” World
Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3479. CEPR Discussion Paper 4443. NBER Working
Paper No. 10980.
 APPENDIX

Fig # 4.3: Provincial division on child labor