Help to Helpers: A Quantitative Study on Child Labor

In Pakistan and its Dynamic Solutions

 Introduction:
We live in a world where 306 million children are employed (ILO report, 2010). Among those
children 215 million children are proclaimed as child labor in which 115 million children are
compelled to work in hazardous work conditions.

There is no recent data available in Pakistan about child labor before 1996. Most recent data
available is from 1996 where a survey was conducted that showed that there are 3.3 million
children in Pakistan who are victims of child labor. Human Right Commission Pakistan estimated
in 2005 that there are 10 million underage children linked to labor in Pakistan.

According to the International Labor Organization, around the globe there was a major decline
in child labor during 2004 and 2008 (ILO, 2010). But on the other hand, according to ILO, effort
for elimination of child labor was worst in Pakistan (Human Rights Commission, 2010). HRC
report also implies that there has been the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in Pakistan
according to which this matter and elimination of this issue has been transferred to the
provincial government.
Some positive steps are carried out by the Provincial Child Labor Unit (PCLU), in which all four
provincial governments at different times and in diverse conditions are focusing on the
neutralizers of child labor in Pakistan in terms of education, skill training programs, small credit
plans and community watch. These units were established with the collaboration of
government’s (provincial) labor departments, ILO and European Commission. (Human Rights
Commission, 2010).

 Aims and Objectives:

To explore the situation of Child Labor in Pakistan

To study the factors involved in child labor

To investigate sufficient alternatives for elimination of child labor in Pakistan

To provide pragmatic solutions and recommendations for Pakistani community, government
and international community

 Problem statement:
What are the major factors of child labor?

Will child labor decrease as poor countries develop?

Is child labor caused by poverty?

 Literature Review:
The Constitution of Pakistan respects the children rights and provides for
defending children. According to the Constitution, no child under the age of fourteen shall be
employed in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. (Online resource:
www.Pakistani.org) Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2010) reports poverty, social
attitudes, large family size and low literacy rate as factors of child labor in Pakistan. Bhalotra &
Heady (2003) and Dumas ET, al. (2004) also connect the child labor with household poverty,
lack of connectedness between subsistence requirements and other income resources. Ahmed
(1991) calculates the reasons of child labor as poverty, illiteracy, survival, large families, rural
and urban migration and labor troubles. He also discusses the inadequacy of enforcement of
elementary education laws, very high birthrate and the lack of economic resources. This is the
reason why he believes the proportion of children in Pakistan as larger than most other
countries. A research conducted by Ray (1988) investigates the comparison between Pakistan
and Peru in terms of child labor. He examines some similarities between both countries, for
example the impact of child’s age, gender and level of education for females in the household
are quite similar in both countries. On the other hand, in description of dissimilarities he
indicates that the household expenditure and cultural impact are two important dissimilar
variables in both countries. He also worked on the comparison between Pakistan and Nepal
(2001),a comparative research between Pakistan and Ghana is conducted by Bhalotra, et al.
(1997). Pakistan is multi-linguistic and diverse society. Rana (2003) indicates a comparison
between two cities (Faisalabad and Pakpattan) of Pakistani Province Punjab. Barki and Fasih
(1998) examine that the cultural and demographic disparities among four provinces of Pakistan
are the reasons why the determinant may differ across provinces. This report investigates the
intense condition of this issue in Pakistan. According to the report the violence with child
laborers is a worse problem in Pakistan that had been persistent in year 2010. Most of the time,
this type of violence is being unaccounted for and unnoticed. It is also not even covered by
labor laws. An NGO (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child) estimated that nearly
one million children (most of them were girls) were associated with the working as domestic
servants. Often time these Children during domestic serving are victimized physically and
sexually (HRCP, 2012). Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also suggests some very
considerable recommendations which are very remarkable for this research to attain an
appropriate research framework. According to HRCP (2012) Pakistan suffered deadly natural
disaster during last decade that destroyed the infrastructure. So it is very important to give
serious attention to recovery mechanism which has a connection with increase of child labor.
The report also recommends government to expedite restoration of schools destroyed in
natural disasters (horrible earthquake and floods) and in the conflict in the northwestern areas
of Pakistan.

Secondly the Human Rights Commission suggests giving full rights to provincial governments to
play their role in the elimination of child labor under the umbrella of 18th amendment of
Constitution. Third, explicit rules, regulations and policies against domestic child and protecting
house servants must be formulated. Fourth, there should be a new child labor survey
conducted to evaluate the existing condition and to develop properly the rules and policies
accordingly. And fifth, the government should develop special training for judges, prison staff,
probation officers, and police. (HRCP, 2012)

 Methodology:
This was a cross-sectional community based study. A total of 700 hundred children were select-
ed. Areas surveyed included Commercial market, Pir Widhaee, Kamran Market, Tipu Road
Automobile Workshops, Airport road, Sawan, Murree Road (aka BB road), Saddar, China
Market, Food Street and some residential areas of district Rawalpindi.

In this study, hang for 09 months from January to September 2008, over 1000 child laborers
were identified at random and invited to participate in a questionnaire based study. A total of
700 children agreed to participate (over 300 were excluded owing to difficulties in speaking and
understanding or partly as they were afraid of their masters). Only those who understood the
nature of study, could answer questions being asked from them and agreed for consent were
included in the study. Demographic details of the child and details on child family members,
earning members, education status, reason for work at this age, total family income /month,
total money earned by child/month, place of work, nature of job, time spent at job punishment
at workplace were recorded on a structured Performa. Data collected was entered in computer
for analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Study was ethically reviewed and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee, Foundation
Medical University Rawalpindi.

 Results:
A total of 700 working children between 4-18 years of age with a mean age of 13.5 years, were
enrolled. Male to female ratio was 5.4:1. Majority of the children had a family size of 5-8
members while 126 belonged to a family having 9-12. 634 children had 1-4 earning family
members while only 5 child laborers were from families having 10-12 earning members.
Regarding the education, 479 children out of 700 study population ever attended the school as
compared to 221 (32%) who never went to school. Majority of children (291, 42%) attended
school till primary level followed by preschool level (141, 20%) and only (67, 10%) could
continue till secondary level (Table 1). Details of various reasons for not attending or leaving
school are given in the table 2.

Two fifty eight (36.9%) children’s families had monthly income of more than PKR 8000/ month,
210 (30%) PKR 6000-8000/ month, 167 (23.9%) PKR 4000-5000/ month and 63 (0.9%) families
were earning less than PKR 3000/ month. Data showed that majority (38.65) of children worked
in shops followed by workshops and homes 28.9% and 15.4% respectively. Nine percent
children worked as garbage collectors in streets.
  Discussion:

According to UNICEF most working children are aged 11 to 14 years old, but as many as 60
million are between the ages of 5 and 11. In our study age of study population ranged from 4-
18 years with a mean of 13.5 years. Last year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics released the
results of its survey funded by ILO’s IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child
Labor). According to the findings, 3.8 million children of age group 5-14 years were working in
Pakistan out of total 40 million children in this age group; fifty percent of these economically
active children were in age group of 5 to 9 years10. Results of current study are in accordance
with this.
Hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work as laborers due to the poverty before
they ever enter school and majority of them leave school in the middle of study to become
laborers. The problem of child labor is closely associated with poverty and underdevelopment.
In a survey of Pakistan’s sports goods industry, over 72 percent of workers who did not attend
school did so because they could not afford school fees and hence in Pakistan, lack of edu-
cational facilities and the socio-economic relevance of education is an essential factor that
explains the increase in child labor.

 Conclusion:

Literature on child labor in Pakistan is scanty, making it tricky to focus on particular pushing
factors for child labor in Pakistan. One of the main themes that emerged from the literature
review is that poverty plays a basic role behind most of the health and social issues in the lives
of child laborers in Pakistan. In addition, lack of basic education of parents, norms and culture,
large family size and physical and verbal abuses by family members were the major factors
identified. Interventions are primarily led by NGOs in Pakistan.
Although it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions due to lack of
research in this area, but, some of the best practices identified through the study include,
evening schools and drop-in centers with provision of skill based education, basic health
facilities, food and washing/bathing facilities. However, there is need for greater number of
such facilities in locations to make them accessible for larger number of child laborers in
Pakistan.