Poverty levels in Pakistan appear to necessitate that children work in order to allow families to sustain
KARACHI: In Pakistan, a country where almost half of the population lives below the poverty line child labour is a deeply entrenched and a disturbing phenomenon. It is prevalent in all sectors of the economy, though it primarily exists in the informal sector of employment as well as the home-based industry.
According to a 2002 survey of the Federal Bureau of Statistics 2002, the number of working children in Pakistan was approximately 3.5 million or 7% of the total workforce. However, children under the age of 10 working in unregistered small and family businesses were not part of the survey. So the actual figure is deemed to be much higher.
Moreover, a survey conducted by Unicef in 2003 estimated that eight million children under the age of 14 are engaged as labourers. Most of them working in brick kilns, carpet-weaving factories, agriculture, small-scale industries and domestic services. The survey also indicated that rural and urban ratio of child labourers was 7:1. The province with most number of child labourers was Punjab with nearly 60% of the total child labour population.
Poverty levels in Pakistan appear to necessitate that children work in order to allow families to sustain.
However to control this situation, the lack of economic opportunities for adult employment in Pakistan needs to be studied and remedial measures taken. A lack of education is another reason for the high rate of child labour in the country. Though the government of Pakistan has formulated policies to provide free elementary education to children, the policy lacks implementation. This needs to change.
Maheen Yousuf
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2018.
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