Child labour

Ten million children forced to work is a figure enough to jolt the conscience of those at the helm

In Pakistan, 33% children are underweight, 44% stunted, 15% wasted, and 37% illiterate. Given these grim statistics, the Balochistan Assembly’s unanimous resolution calling for the provision of quality education and nourishment to children and taking measures to prevent child labour and abuse can only be welcome. The country’s Constitution and labour laws prohibit employing children below the age of 14. According to a survey carried out in 1996, the number of child labourers in Pakistan is 3.3 million. However, the Human Rights of Commission of Pakistan estimates this number at 10 million. Ten million children forced by their circumstances to work to support their families is a figure enough to jolt the conscience of those at the helm. Many of these child labourers are engaged in hazardous work. Though no survey has been conducted after 1996, experts estimate the number of child labourers has increased in Pakistan contrary to the global declining trend.

Article 35 of the Constitution of Pakistan gurantees the rights of the child. Pakistan is also a signatory to the UN Convention of 1990 on child protection and security. Speaking on the resolution in the Balochistan Assembly, a female legislator expressed concern over the increasing number of rape and child abuse cases. She said the basic purpose of the resolution was to give a clear message that the entire nation stood united against such kind of abominable practices. We hope the resolution and speeches do not turn out to be the usual high-minded declarations of platitudes coming from politicians showing concern for the plight of the downtrodden and stressing the need for improving their lives. We would like to see them translated into action. Charles Dickens, who himself had to work from childhood, writes in his novel Great Expectations, “In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.” Children feel injustice acutely. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2019.

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