The Sindh government immediately enact a law prohibiting child labour.
SANGHAR: According to the Universal Periodic Review Report, 2.58 million children aged between 10 to 14 are involved in child labour in Pakistan. Out of this number, approximately one million children are from Sindh. There are different forms of child labour with children being involved in agriculture, garages, hotels, carpet-making, manufacturing and selling of bangles, the cement industry, deep-sea fishing and other industries, which are hazardous for children’s health.
Before the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, the Employment of Children Act of 1991 was the only law regulating employment of children, which included a schedule of hazardous forms of labour. Despite the presence of this law, it is evident that not a single conviction/prosecution has been made since 1991. Also, many officers from the labour department do not know the procedures of prosecution under this law. After the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, child labour has now become a provincial subject but unfortunately, the Sindh government has failed to introduce any law to counter this problem.
We strongly demand that the Sindh government immediately enact a law prohibiting child labour, which is also in line with Article 25-A of the Constitution, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child and the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions 138 and 182, and make adequate arrangements for implementation of the law in letter and in spirit.
Ghulam Madni
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2013.
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