‘Societal indifference aggravates child labour’

Islamabad: One of the major causes of societal indifference is negligence in accepting and countering child labour. These views were shared by child rights activists in a press released shared by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) on the occasion of Child Labour Day.

Asiya Arif Khan, executive director SPARC stated that the ratio of child labour in Pakistan has increased as compared to other countries in the region and 22.8 million children are out of school in the country. Situation is exacerbated after floods and natural calamities where many out of school children are forced into child labour.

Drawing attention to child domestic labour, Asiya lamented that every fourth house employs young and needy children to carry out laborious work. Even educated and well-off families employ poor children as young as 7 years to take care of their children. These children are paid far less and they are subjected to long working hours. ICT alone has reported many cases which also includes domestic labour where children are sometimes beaten to death.

SPARC’s Program Manager, said this day calls on protecting children against harmful occupation settings, where many children die due to working at risky and unsafe places such as mines, brick kilns.