By: Khalil Ahmed Dogar
Pakistan has around 87.938 million children approximately 47% of Pakistan’s total population. Its present, as well as future, depends on the survival, protection, rights, and development of its children, who constitute the majority of our population. Our children are not our future. They are our present – here and now. Our children are our most precious citizens. We need to love and cherish and protect them. Children have special rights and they need their rights to be protected in all respects without any prejudice in any way. This is necessary to ensure their well-being, successful development, and their rights. Not only parents, but all governments and state institutions have a duty to create a child-friendly environment and to promote children’s rights in order to ensure our future. Unfortunately, huge challenges remain for them in the country.
Child labour is characterized as work which is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and which interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend a school or forcing them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance, with excessively long and heavy labour. Child labour is a grave social problem. It is a practice that engages children in economic activities at the cost of their potential development. Child labour can negatively affect the physical, mental, social and emotional health of a child. Countries and organizations across the global north and south have declared child labour violation of children’s right.
In Pakistan, the last child labour survey was conducted in 1996. The survey estimated 3.3million children (2.4million boys and 0.9million girls) between the ages of 5 – 14 years to be engaged in labour out of the 40 million total population falling in that particular age bracket. Since then, there are no current statistics available on the subject making it strenuous for the Government to detect the seriousness of the issue and responding appropriately to cater to them. The majority of the children working were in elementary occupations relating to agriculture, sales and services, mining, construction, manufacturing, and transport sectors.
According to Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2016-17, the school going age population was around 51.53.million (age group 5 to 16) out of which it was estimated that 22.84 million (44%) were not going to school despite article 25-A of Pakistan’s Constitution which makes it State’s obligation to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years.
Pakistan is a signatory to several international conventions which demand immediate and effective measures to eradicate child Labour and forced Labour in all their forms. These commitments require urgent action on eradication of Child Labour. Through the provision of quality education and punitive action in case of violence against children. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, contains provisions pertaining to child labour. Article 11, Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, provides that “No child below the age of fourteen years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment”. Article 25-A, Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, Right to Education: “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.”
In 2010, the 18th amendment in the constitution resulted in devolution and redistribution of powers between federal and provincial governments. After this amendment, child labour is a provincial subject and all provinces are free in legislation and policymaking. The provinces had the mandate to create structures and institutions in addition to laws and procedures. Every province has laws to eradicate child labour in the province. The Employment of Children Act, 1991 is applicable in Islamabad Capital Territory and Balochistan. There are three laws to eradicate child labour in the Province of Punjab, The Punjab restriction on employment of Children Act 2016 and other is The Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Act 2016 and Punjab Domestic Workers’ Act, 2019. The KP Government introduced an act KP Prohibition of employment of children act, 2015. The Province of KP is the only province, which one introduced a Child Labour policy in 2018. The Sindh government also introduced an act The Sindh Prohibition of employment of children act, 2017 to eliminate child labour in the province. The age of 14 & 15 mentioned in the laws is in contradiction with the Article 25-A of the constitution and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2012 in which a child till the age of 16 must attend school. It further contradicts the United Nation Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) ratified by Pakistan which defines a child as a human under 18 years of age. This difference in the ‘age of a child’ in different Pakistani laws has remained a challenge in effective implementation.
When Pakistan announced its first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) on February 26, 2020, the public at large thought that this virus will affect only elders and people with prior health conditions. However, after 4 and half months of complete and smart lockdown which lasted from March 24, 2020, till the start of August 2020, this perception changed. People quickly realized that children have been the biggest effectees of this situation. Whether it was the loss of education due to the closing of schools and lack of internet facilities, or issues in access to healthcare services, or shortage of food supply due to their parents losing their jobs; children have been hit hard by this pandemic.
According to a report by United Nations published on June 23, 2020, the current COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push more than 120 million South Asian children in poverty within next six months. It’s to be noted that 240 million out of 600 million children in this region are already living in poverty. The report has mentioned that out of school children are at extreme risk of poverty.
According to a World Bank report, more than 930,000 Pakistani school going children might drop out because of poverty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is alarming that Pakistan already has the second largest population of out-of-school children (age 05 to 16) in the world. According to the report, these children dropping out and entering Labor force before graduation would cause Pakistan $67 billion in the gross domestic product (GDP) at net present value in twenty years compared to if they had completed their education and then entered the market.
A situation where parents have no means to provide food and future to their children, they force children to earn their own bread. The pandemic has even disturbed the coffers of rich, children are being preferred as maids, factory workers, hawkers, shop helpers as they’re cheap labor and can be dominated more. According to experts, the financial implications of COVID-19 will also include child marriages and trafficking for commercial and sexual exploitation.
Child labour is socially accepted mainly and has roots into more population and lack of awareness amongst parents about harmful effects of child labour on children, which includes survival, protection, development and wellbeing. Additionally, employers prefer to keep children because they are easy to be controlled, abused, ordered and exploited on extremely low or no wage. There are various reasons of Child labour in Pakistan. Almost one-third of its population falls below the poverty line as the country ranks number 5 in the list of countries by population. The issue of child labour has a circular causal relationship with poverty as one of its root causes is poverty which in turn is caused by it. Child labour is also closely linked to cultural norms and the failure of Pakistan’s education system to provide high quality education at primary and secondary level. Around 75% of working children have not completed primary education or are only able to recite the Quran. Most working children come from families of 10-12 memberswhere one wage-earner may have to feed up to 10 people. A study of scavenging children found that the average number of siblings of one child was 7.6 with SD + 2.61. This leads to an expectation that children should contribute to family income and a sense that child labour is therefore not unjust. Parents who believe education to be unhelpful validate their understanding of child labour as being likely to give them a more productive future. In many cases, especially in cases of bonded-child-labour and girl child servitude, it is not the children but parents, who receive wages directly or indirectly and sometimes in peshgi (advance). No employment contracts are ever issued. While peshgi bondage began in the agricultural sector it has crept into mining, fishing, brick making and even to domestic servitude. Contemporary slavery in Pakistan, in most cases, emanates from entrenched and socio-culturally acceptable norms. Cultural and business elites such as feudal landlords or business owners are often associated with high levels of child labour. A complex web of culture, traditions, livelihood dynamics and absence of alternatives are interconnected. Parents’ own education, age, gender, local economy, ecology and cost of schooling all matter. Behind all of this is an inadequate response by the state.
The writer is Program Manager, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]