Child labour in Pakistan (2012)

1. Child labour in Pakistan (2012) Maira Saud 8-e

2. Is children begging considered as child labour? Those 15 seconds, when you’re anxiously waiting for the red signal that is just about to turn green- a small child comes up to your car sticking his face in the window as hard as he can to make himself seen, or holding consumer goods, like tissue packets, biscuits, combs etc. They asks you to buy something from him , because they have to survive and for their survival their parents find this way easier. In my opinion children begging is considered as child labour.

3. Education or child labour?Which will rise our children’s future? OR Child labour or education , which will make your future rise? Obviously education is the key of success. Today people want shortcuts to earn money and for some parents this is the main shortcut that their children are begging instead of studying.

4. The most bitter truth of our life? According to Unicef estimates, one insix children (158 million) aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor. These kids aren't working at the local shopping center. Rather, they sell goods on the street, clean houses, or work in small factories and stay away from the watchful eye of local law enforcement or inspectors. Their day starts with fear of injuries and ends with pain of their injuries. These children are hired for doing such hard works which only a man could do.

5. Is child labour a cause or a consequence of poverty?

6. Child labour leads to deaths and injuries Children can be found in almost any economic sector. However, at a global level, most of them are in agriculture (70%). Some hazards in agriculture are the exposure to pesticides, the use of dangerous machinery or tools (like knives), carrying heavy loads, the presence of snakes, and so on. Children working in agriculture are the ones suffering most injuries. And one of the sad characteristics of child labour in agriculture are the few, if any opportunities for advance or change. For children working as domestic labourers, the hazards are sometimes not that obvious. Here, it can be the psychological hazards, like isolation, abuse, exploitation that make this form dangerous. Domestic labour is often called “hidden” and it is often difficult to find those children

7. Types of child labour • Agriculture (plantations and farms); • Domestic work (in homes); • In manufacturing; • As scavenger and street children; • Mining and quarrying and there are many other unconditional , worst forms of child labour.

8. Causes of child labour International LabourOrganisation (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single cause behind child labour. Pakistan has a per-capita income of approximately $1900. A middle class person in Pakistan earns around $5 a day on average.The average Pakistani has to feed nine or ten people with their daily wage. Further to that there is also the high inflation rate to contend with. As of 2008, 17.2% of the total population lives below the poverty line, which is the lowest figure in the history of Pakistan. Poverty levels in Pakistan appear to necessitate that children work in order to allow families to reach their target take‐home pay. On the side of the firms, the low cost of child labor gave manufacturers a significant advantage in the Western marketplace, where they undersell their competitors from countries prohibiting child labor, often by improbable amounts.

9. Eradicate child labour Stop Child Labour - School is the Best Place to Work The Stop Child Labour campaign is a joint lobby, education and awareness raising campaign that seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision of full time formal education. Hivos has been leading the campaign during the first two EU co-financed phases and continues to do so with IBIS, Cesvi and People in Need.

10. All child labour is unacceptable The Convention on the Rights of the Child along with a host of other international agreements unequivocally affirm the right of all children to live in freedom from exploitation. Approaches to the issue have tended to prioritize and segregate solutions to different types of child labour depending on certain categories.