Niaz Khan, Department of Community Health Sciences, Agha Khan University Dr. Meesha Iqbal, and labour rights activist Iftikhar Ahmad.
The seminar was conducted as part of SPARC’s ongoing weekly celebrations starting from 20th, November based on the Universal Children’s Day, which is globally acknowledged as a day to recognize and ensure children’s rights, protection, well-being, and development.
This occasion was chosen to highlight that child labour and children in modern day slavery continue to remain manifest problems within the context of Pakistan. According to the 2014-15 Labour Force Survey there are indicated to be 3.70 million children, between the ages of 10-17 in the workforce, of which 1.64 million are engaged in hazardous work; while earlier estimates from 2010-11 Labour Force Survey indicated 5.7 million 10-17 year olds in the workforce. In the absence of a nationwide survey these numbers are estimates and actual figures are believed to be higher. The Global Slavery Index, 2016 estimates 2.1 million people in Pakistan living under slavery making up about 1.13% of the global population. This constitutes a significant proportion of children engaged in modern-day slavery.
Commencing the event Manager Research, SPARC Farshad Iqbal highlighted the need for civil society organizations to address the issues of child labour through innovative measures in advocacy and service delivery to maximize their impact. He further asserted that integrated government poverty alleviation measures including shifts in micro-economic and macro-economic policies were the need of the hour to substantially eliminate the problems of poverty which is the salient cause of child labour.
Anees Jillani gave a detailed presentation on current child labour laws and suggested pertinent amendments needed to fill the lacunae that allowed for child labour and modern slavery to prevail in the country.
Speaking at the event, Director General Ministry of Human Rights Hassan Mangi, said that issues of child labour are being accorded high priority by the government and efforts are being made to extend services of protection and care to this vulnerable group.
Chief Guest, Justice (r) Ali Nawaz Chohan (Chairman NCHR), emphasized on the need for spearheading poverty alleviation initiatives and linking them to concerned departments for eradicating child labour and modern day slavery.
Towards the end of the event, children from SPARC’s Centre for Street Children (CSC) participated in a theatre performance directed by TV artist Batin Farooqi to highlight the how poverty and lack of awareness leads to child labour and child marriage.