‘Child labour graph went up during the pandemic’

Lockdowns and closure of businesses forced children to take jobs to meet household expenses

KARACHI:

The global pandemic has increased the graph of child labour in Pakistan. Subsequent lockdowns and closure of businesses caused large scale of job loss, compelling families to engage children in the labour.

During the period, schools remained closed for many months and it caused increased drop out and dumped the children into the trap of labour.

To assess the impacts of COVID-19 on the school-going children, DevCon, a non-governmental organisation conducted a survey 'Impact of Covid-19 on school-going children' in Korangi Industrial Area.

The study revealed that the number of children taking different jobs has increased alarmingly. Before the pandemic, the total number of school-going children in the surveyed area was was 49 (2.18 per cent) out of 2,240 school going children in 10 schools. During the pandemic the numbers of working children went up to 288 that constitutes 12.9 per cent of total school going children.

The percentage of girls' child labor is 67 per cent as compared to boys who constitute 33 per cent of working children. The total 95 school-going boys and 193 girls reported that they are engaged in labour. The age of working children rang from five to 18 years.

It was also revealed that majority of 50 per cent working children are studying in primary classes while 26 per cent in secondary and 24 per cent study in matriculation and above.

The study found that a total 92 students have been dropped out from the school during the last two years, therefore, the total dropout ratio was 4.1 per cent in both girls and boys.

The data shared by the organisation shows that the boys' ratio of drop out was 2.7 per cent regarding total enrollment students while 1.4 per cent were girls.

It was also observed that some students did not attend school regularly and just joined schools during the examination. Those children are more interested in the pass out certificates which will help them getting employment because majority of employment sectors need minimum qualification of matriculation.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2022.