ASNA MASOOD

Roll # 20

BS IIIRd year

Department of
chemistry

CHILD LABOUR

Children are remarkably

imaginative and resilient - but
also heartbreakingly fragile
and vulnerable

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The true picture of working childrens in pakistan can be describe by this
song of iqbal masih ,

My father sold me to a carpet man

I go to his factory at 4 am
I’m working all day as hard as I can
I’m just a child workin’ like a man

My father sold me to a carpet man

Who runs a factory in Pakistan
For a twelve dollar debt he could not pay
I work like a slave for six cents a day

Chained to my loom...Pretty rugs for your room

My name is Iqbal – And my life’s full of gloom.
No breaks, no lunch... do the best I can
No school, no play... in Holy Pakistan.

I’m four years young, and I only know one way

Makin’ rugs for your rooms ... and I don’t how to play.
Like some kids in China weaving pretty colored rugs..
They slave to make toys...No kittens...or hugs.

I sit at the loom 12 hours strong

I don’t know this is very wrong –
Working in silence all through the day
I don’t even know there’s another way.

When I ran away, I would pay, be attacked

With relentless beatings on my back.
I had no choice, for I needed to stay
And labor again for six cents a day.

My name is Iqbal and I’m only five

I don’t even know that I am alive.
When I’m six I hope this torture will cease
Or is this the way it must always be?

At the age of six, I dreamt of the loom.

No dreams of puppies, or toys in my room.
Now I am seven, and trust God has a plan...
To save the children from the factory man.

I’m eight years old, And think I can say...

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 That I do what I’m told, But I hate every day
Now I am nine and BLF* set me free
I escaped to a Rally from the factory.

The papers were sent when I was just ten...

I’ll never return to the loom again!
My story can now be told to more –
We no longer owe the factory store

The school of knowledge

Fed my spirit a feast –
And then my light went out,
When I was shot near a beast.

Do not buy pretty rugs or toys,

That are made by children -- girls and boys.
Watch for the “Rugmark” that makes this decree:
“I’m made by a worker that’s grown-up and free”!

Child labour : is refers to the employment of childrens whether it is regular

or sustained .

Or

“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 referes to the work that :

Ø is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to

children

Ø 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.

One out of six children in the world today is involved in child labour, doing work
that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional

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development.Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child
labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the
conditions under which the work is performed and the objectives pursued by
individual. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors
within countries.

Forms of child labour :

The child labour exists in many forms sometime you can visualized it and some
times it is hidden .we cannot able to identify it by our naked eyes .the some of
widespread and worst forms of child labour are discussed below .

1. Domestic work: Very common and sometimes seen as acceptable, it

happens in the family home or outside the home. When domesticwork is
outside the home, children – almost always girls – work very long hours,
have no chance to go to school and are isolated from their family and
friends.

2. Agricultural work: A lot of working children are found in agriculture.They

often work on the family farm or with the whole family, as a unit, for an
employer.

3. Work in industries: This work can be regular or casual, legal orillegal, as

part of the family or by the child on his own for an employer. It includes
carpet weaving, gemstone polishing, making garments, chemicals,
glassware, fireworks, matches or a range of other products. These tasks
expose the children to hazardous chemicals that can lead to poisoning,
respiratory and skin diseases, radiant heat, fire and explosions, eyesight
and hearing damage cuts, burns and even death.

4. Work in mines and quarries: Child labour is used in smallscale mines in

many countries. They work long hours without adequate protection and
training. Child miners suffer from physical strain,fatigue and disorders of
the muscular and skeletal systems.

5. Slavery and forced labour: It is most commonly found in rural areas. It is

also frequently linked to the oppression of ethnic minorities and
indigenous peoples. Children are often also drawn into armed conflict,
forced to be soldiers or to work for armed forces.

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 6. Prostitution and child trafficking: It is one of the worst forms of child
labour. The dangers faced by children are extreme and range from moral
corruption to sexually transmitted diseases to death.

7. Work in the informal economy: This includes a whole range of activities

such as shoe cleaning, begging, pulling rickshaws, selling newspapers, or
collecting rubbish. Some forms are very easily observed while others are
hidden from public view. Activities often take place on the streets but also
include domestic work.

Causes of child labour :

Ø poverty :Most children work because their families are poor and their
labour is necessary for their survival. Discrimination on grounds including
gender, race or religion also plays its part in why some children work.

Ø Unemployments of adults :Children are often employed and exploited

because, compared to adults, they are more vulnerable, cheaper to hire
and are less likely to demand higher wages or better working conditions.
Some employers falsely argue that children are particularly suited to
certain types of work because of their small size and "nimble fingers".

Ø Illiteracy :For many children, school is not an option. Education can be

expensive and some parents feel that what their children will learn is
irrelevant to the realities of their everyday lives and futures. In many
cases, school is also physically inaccessible or lessons are not taught in
the child's mother tongue, or both.

Ø Orphans : childrens who born without the wedlock are obliged to work in
several industries and other place for for their own living.because there is
no one to support them.

Results of child labour :

Ø Long term health problems :Children who work long hours, often in dangerous
and unhealthy conditions, are exposed to lasting physical and psychological
harm.like they are attacked by respiratory disease ,cancer and abestosis where
childrens are force to works with chemicals or in fiber industriesWorking at rug
looms, for example, has left children disabled with eye damage

Ø Malnutriction and growth problems :childrens do very heavy manuall work

faces problems of malnutrition and growth problems cecause of extra stress on

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 their body there growth become retarded.these deficiency also impact on their
adult life.

Ø Infections :Children making silk thread in India dip their hands into boiling
water that burns and blisters them, breath smoke and fumes from machinery,
handle dead worms that cause infections, and guide twisting threads that cut their
fingers

Ø Sexuall transmitted disease and HIV :as childrens are easy to approach so many
of childs forced into prostitution they often become target of sexuall abuse and
victimize by HIV syndrome .

Ø Children harvesting sugar cane in El Salvador use machetes to cut cane for up to
nine hours a day in the hot sun; injuries to their hands and legs are common and
medical care is often not available.

Child labour statistics around the world :60% in Asia, 32% in Africa, 7% in Latin
America and 1% in US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations.

Laws :

Ø National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987.

Ø prohibition of children being employed in hazardous occupations and processes.
Ø Poverty being the main root cause the govt has decided to generate the
employment
Ø supplementary nutrition and regular health check ups so as to prepare them to join
regular mainstream schools

THE CHILD LABOUR (Prohibition and Regulation) ACT, 1986

Ø OBJECT:To prohibit the engagement of children in certain employment’s and to

regulate the conditions of work or children in certain other employment’s
Ø DEFINITION:Child: Child means a person who has not completed his fourteen
years of age.
Ø APPLICABILITY: In extends to the whole of India
Ø WEEKLY HOLIDAY:Every child shall be allowed in each week a holiday of one
whole day.
Ø HOURS AND PERIOD OF WORK: The period of work on each day shall not
exceed three hours and no child
Ø shall work for more than three hours before he has had an interval for rest for
Ø at least one hour. No child shall be permitted or required to work between 7
Ø P.m. and 8 a.m.
Ø No child shall be required or permitted to work overtime.

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PROHIBITION OF EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN CERTAIN
OCCUPATIONS AND PROCESSES :
Ø Transport of passengers, goods; or mails by railway
Ø Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in the railway
Ø premise.
Ø Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving the movement
Ø of vendor or any other employee of the establishment from one platform to
Ø another or into or out of a moving train.
Ø Work relating to the construction of railway station or with any other work
Ø where such work is done in close proximity to or between the railway lines.
Ø The port authority within the limits of any port.
Ø 107
Ø Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks in shops with temporary
Ø licenses
Ø Abattoirs/slaughter Houses
Ø Automobile workshops and garages.
Ø Founderies
Ø Handling of taxies or inflammable substance or explosives
Ø Handlom and powerloom industry
Ø Mines (Under ground and under water) and collieries
Ø Plastic units and Fiber glass workship

Child labour in Pakistan :

In Pakistan children aged 5-14 are above 40 million.During the 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 Labour). The findings were that
3.8 million children age group of 5-14 years are working in Pakistan out of total 40
million children in this age group; fifty percent of these economically active children
are in age group of 5 to 9 years. Even out of these 3.8 million economically active
children, 2.7 million were claimed to be working in the agriculture sector. Two million
and four hundred thousand (73%) of them were said to be boys.

STATISTICAL PROFILE OF CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN

Approximately 3.6 million children are involved in child labor in Pakistan now a days.
These children get low wages but over worked. Most of the child labors remain hidden
from statistical and planning procedures because they are working in the invisible sector
of the economy. The child workers do not enjoy basic needs of life.

Measures taken by government of Pakistan to prohibit child labour :

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During the year 2001 and 2002 the government of Pakistan carried out a series of
consultation of tripartite partners and stakeholders (Labour Department, trade unions,
employers and NGOs) in all the provinces. The objective was to identify the occupations
and the categories of work, which may be considered as hazardous under the provisions
of ILO Convention 182. As a result of these deliberations, a national consensus list of
occupations and categories of work was identified, which is given below:

1. Nature of occupation-category of work

2. Work inside under ground mines over ground quarries, including blasting and assisting
in blasting
3. Work with power driven cutting machinery like saws, shears, and guillotines, (
Thrashers, fodder cutting machines, also marbles)
4. Work with live electrical wires over 50V.
5. All operation related to leather tanning process e.g. soaking, dehairing, liming chrome
tanning, deliming, pickling defleshing, and ink application.
6. Mixing or application or pesticides insecticide/fumigation.
7. Sandblasting and other work involving exposure to free silica.
8. Work with exposure to ALL toxic, explosive and carcinogenic chemicals e.g. asbestos,
benzene, ammonia, chlorine, , carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulphide, epoxy, resins,
formaldehyde, metal fumes, heavy metals like nickel, mercury chromium, etc
9. Work with exposure to cement dust (cement industry)
10. Work with exposure to coal dust
11. Manufacture and sale of fireworks explosives
12. Work at the sites where Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas
(CNG) are filled in cylinders.
13. Work on glass and metal furnaces
14. Work in the clothe printing, dyeing and finishing sections
15. Work inside sewer pipelines, pits, storage tanks
16. Stone crushing
17. Lifting and carrying of heavy weight specially in transport industry ( 15b kg and
above)
18. Work between 10 pm to 8 am ( Hotel Industry)
19. Carpet waving
20. Working 2 meter above the floor
21. All scavenging including hospital waste
22. tobacco process ( including Niswar) and Manufacturing
23. Deep fishing ( commercial fishing/ sea food and fish processing
24. Sheep casing and wool industry
25. Ship breaking
26. Surgical instrument manufacturing specially in vendors workshop
27. Bangles glass, furnaces

Causes of child labour in Pakistan :

It is an outcome of socio-economic factors and has its roots in poverty, lack of
opportunities, high rate of population growth, unemployment, uneven distribution of

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wealth and resources, outdated social customs and norms . According to the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP) the daily income of 65.5% people of Pakistan is
below 2 U.S. dollars a day.

Consider the point that if 30% of our country’s total population is leading life below the
poverty-line wherein the people are deprived of basic necessities of life like clothing,
shelter, food, education and medication, the children of these people will be forced to
become Labourers or workers in order to survive. Another reason of child Labour in
Pakistan is that our people don’t have the security of social life. There is no aid plan or
allowance for children in our country. Class-based education system is another reason for
increasing child Labour; villages lack standardized education systems and as a result,
child Labour is on increase in rural areas. The government has not put its laws into
practice to stop child Labour in our country. Employers after exploiting child Labour,
extract a large surplus, whereas child Labour, despite increasing poverty, unemployment
and other problems, are pressed to do anything and everything for their livelihood and the
survival of their families.

According to non-government reports, there are

more than 12 million child labourers in Pakistan and our “poor education system
and the high birth rate are the main reasons. These children compete with adults in
whatever little work that is available. As many as 1,459 cases of child trafficking
were reported by mainstream print media in Pakistan between 2001 and 2009, while
19 boys and girls have been trafficked within the first quarter of 2010.

An estimated 1.2 million children are on the streets in the big cities of Pakistan.
Among a total of 52,962 reported cases of child abuse in Pakistan, Punjab was at the
top with almost 60 per cent, followed by Sindh with 34 per cent, then Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa with five per cent and Balochistan with nearly one per cent. Mostly,
children who are domestic servants are subjected to abuse.

foot ball stitching and child labour :

By the late 1990s, Pakistan had come to account for 75 percent of total world production
of soccer balls (or “footballs,” as they are known in most countries), and 71 percent of all
soccer ball imports into the United States. The International Labor Rights Forum and
allies called attention to rampant child labor in the soccer ball industry. According to
investigations, thousands of children between the ages of 5 and 14 were putting in as
many as 10 to 11 hours per day stitching

CHILD LABOR DUE TO THE GOVERNMENT

During our analysis of furnace’s in Gujranwala,it found that how government is the cause
of child labor. it analyzed that there were 3 child labors in every 10 employees in one
furnace.That means on average there are 42 furnaces in Gujranwala employed 4000

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workers, lead to the result that almost 1200 children are working in furnaces regarded as
child labor according to the Pakistan Child labor Law. The analysis of furnaces shows us
that how Government is the cause of the child labor we found following results.

First Reason:-
The first thing analyzed and also told by the owner of one furnace is given in the
following diagram.

Increase in Taxes

Increase in Cost of Production

Increase in prices of goods

Decrease Buying power of

Increase in Child Labor

Second reason:-
On the other hand we can also see that Government is not providing the sufficient
facilities to people with the increasing inflation rate in Pakistan so people took there
children to do work. As a result due to the poor policies of Government of Pakistan,
Child labor is increasing.

Third Reason:-1`

As we had analyzed in Furnaces of Gujranwala and other industries that owners are
giving pay to children that is less than the pay fixed by the Government. So Government
is not having any proper check on such industries. And firms are paying children less
then the pay fixed by the Government to earn more profit. Our analysis shows that in
some furnaces like some cooking utensils making factories, they are paying only 2500Rs
per month to the children working there. The time limit and duties are also same as that
of other adult workers getting pays 6500Rs per month.

Forth reason:-

For the Child labor is that while fixing the floor pays for the employees they are not
considering that how much one family is having members. When children in one family
are more

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EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN
As a cause child labor is having some effects on the economy of Pakistan from which
some are given below. The first effect of child labor is low literacy rate of country. As a
result the economic figure of country looks very bad, which ultimately results in bad
view of country in whole world. Similarly effect of child labor is also on the society.
Because if the society is having illiterate people in its society they will be creating poor
society. Thirdly these children are the future of country as they will not going to get
education they will not going to have better future. Similarly any country may have a lot
of more negative effects of child labor. But there are some positive effects also there.
Firstly it can help to reduce the poverty from the country. As we know that inflation
increases in Pakistan but income doesn’t increase with such rate. Secondly, it helps those
children not having resources of getting education, to get experience for there better
future. And similarly Positive effects also go on.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Ø Increase awareness in the general public.

Ø The production processes of goods should be question regarding the use of child
labour.
Ø The contracts made at government and institutional level must be ensured to free
of child labor.
Ø The employers who are working to eliminate child labor from the society should
be supported.
Ø Make ground for the approval and implementation of UN, ILO declarations and
conventions.
Ø Convince international and national bodies to eliminate the factors which
contribute to child labor
Ø The projects creating favorable environment for children such as education,
minimum wage rate legislation etc should be supported.
Ø Promotion and development of codes of conducts of workforce.
Ø Cooperation to protect children at national and international level.
Ø Promote basic trade union rights for all workers, including the right to a safe work
Ø environment.
Ø Further research on the side effects of child labour.
Ø
SOLUTIONS TO MITIGATE CHILD LABOR
Ø Family incomes enhancement
Ø Educate children, it will help the children to increase their skills and hence
earning
Ø Promotion of social services (shelter and help in crises) to help the families and
children.
Ø Control the family size to minimize the children burden on the family.

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CONCLUSION

Along with the findings from other countries, this study confirms that there is a strong
relationship between poverty and child labor. Poverty is considered as an important factor
of child labor or in other words we can say that profile of child labor is mirror image of
profile of child labor. Further it is confirmed that poverty and child labor are more
common in rural areas, agriculture sector and in families where household head is less
educated or illiterate. This study also discovered that child labors are poorest among
children. We also found in this study that child labor is not a complete dimension of child
labor but there are also other divisions which do not relate to poverty. It also supports the
idea that there is a cruel cycle of child labor and poverty. The suppliers of child labor and
mostly heads of poor families with no or little education. So the working children grow
poor. So there is strong probability that when these working children will become heads
of their families, they will also send their children in the
labor market.

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