Sindh child labour law
Hiring child labour is an old-time practice in the country, numbering in the millions
Hiring child labour is an old-time practice in the country, numbering in the millions. PHOTO: FILE
Hiring child labour is an old-time practice in the country, numbering in the millions, against which multiple NGOs have spoken. Child employers — be they agriculturalists, retailers, wholesalers or households — have rarely considered that they are engaging in unethical, if not yet illegal, practices. Any justification is usually that they are ‘saving’ the child from harm or he or she would otherwise be seeking alms on the street. As lamenting as that sounds, we now have a palpable law that prohibits child labour in Sindh under the age of 14. Nisar Ahmed Khuhro is lauded for his pioneering work for moving the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Bill, 2017, which is meant to protect children from exploitation by employers. The championing of child rights must be adhered to by other provinces as well, taking a lesson from Sindh.
The major reason for child labour, according to the International Labour Organisation, is poverty and both federal and provincial governments need to manage it better. However, there is another imperative aspect: education. In the outline of the new law, absolute child labour is being defined as any person below the age of 14 receiving compensation for work. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 are authorised to work for a maximum of three hours a day. While part time work is advantageous for teaching young adults about responsibility, it would have made more sense to align the new child labour law with the mandated compulsory education age of 16 years in Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, the right to free and compulsory education. However, as with many laws introduced here, Article 25-A never truly made it to the implementation stage, which is the all-important application of the law. Going forward, implementation of the Sindh Child Labour Law in tandem with implementation of free and compulsory education will aid greatly in keeping children off streets and protected from exploitation and forced labour by parents and employers.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2017.
The major reason for child labour, according to the International Labour Organisation, is poverty and both federal and provincial governments need to manage it better. However, there is another imperative aspect: education. In the outline of the new law, absolute child labour is being defined as any person below the age of 14 receiving compensation for work. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 are authorised to work for a maximum of three hours a day. While part time work is advantageous for teaching young adults about responsibility, it would have made more sense to align the new child labour law with the mandated compulsory education age of 16 years in Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, the right to free and compulsory education. However, as with many laws introduced here, Article 25-A never truly made it to the implementation stage, which is the all-important application of the law. Going forward, implementation of the Sindh Child Labour Law in tandem with implementation of free and compulsory education will aid greatly in keeping children off streets and protected from exploitation and forced labour by parents and employers.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2017.