Children issues never been on priority

Islamabad

Issues related to children have never been on the priority for the government. For policy makers, approval of Article 25 with zero implementation, National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill pending for year in different Parliamentary committees and resource less Child Protection Centers are enough to facilitate the age group that is going to shape up the future of this country.

On this World Day Against Child Labour, millions of children in Pakistan are engaged in labour work across the country, majority in hazardous labour work. Categories of work, which are considered hazardous under the provision of International Labour Organisation’s convention 182 include work inside underground mines, over ground quarries, including blasting and assistance in blasting; work with power driven cutting machinery; work with live electrical wires over 50V; all operations related to leather tanning process, soaking, dehairing, liming, chrome tanning and ink application; mixing or application or pesticides or insecticides or fumigation; exposure to toxic explosive and carcinogenic chemicals; sand blasting and other work involving exposure to silicon; work with exposure to coal dust and cement dust; manufacturing and selling firework explosives; stone crushing and work inside sewerage pipelines, pits and storage tanks; lifting heavy weight; Carpet weaving, deep fishing, seafood and fish processing; sheep casing, wool industry, surgical instrument manufacturing, tobacco processing and manufacturing; and work 2 meters above the floor.

Unfortunately, majority of child labour in Pakistan is exposed to one or the other hazardous activity. In a rapid assessment conducted by Society for the Protection of the Rights of Children (SPARC) in coal mines at Shahrig Balochistan recently, it was found that children as young as 7-12 years work on the surface and carry out tasks such as cleaning of the coal from impurities and loading it on the trucks for transportation. Those aged 13-18 are made to work inside the mine in excavating, loading and transporting the coal from the inside to the outside. Around 30 per cent children were inflicted by infectious diseases whilst working in the mine and some died owing to no treatment.

Another study shows that an estimated 2.7million children work in agriculture sector in the country where they contribute in weeding, cultivation, fixing the agricultural canals, applying pesticides and picking fruits and vegetables. Children picking garbage are at high risk for being exposed to harmful gases and germs, sometimes getting injured by the broken glasses and sharp objects.

June 12 marks the Annual World Day Against Child Labour and this year’s theme is ‘End Child Labour in supply chains - It’s everyone’s business!’ Each year on this day employers, worker organisations, the civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world highlight the plight of child labourers across the globe. According to the ILO, there are around 168 million children around the world still engaged in paid or unpaid work across various manufacturing and service industries; many of them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Moreover, more than half of these children are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery and illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

A statement issued by SPARC on this occasion, says that in Pakistan, the last (and only) National Child Labour Survey was conducted in 1996 which estimated that there were 3.3 million child labourers in the country. Since then, various sources have projected a significantly larger number of child labourers present in Pakistan. According to the ILO, there are an estimated at 12 million children engaged in labour while UNICEF projects roughly 10 million child labourers across the country. However, these statistics do not take into account child labourers in the informal sector of the economy such as those working in households and are unmonitored by labour inspectors and child protection officials. As per statistics by ILO, approximately 264,000 children are engaged in domestic work across Pakistan. The reasons behind the wide prevalence of underage employment in Pakistan are complex and multi-faceted; however, they can be broadly related to entrenched poverty and a lack of legislative and administrative framework to deal with child labour along with poor enforcement of existing initiatives by the government.

“It is obvious that the absence of a recent and up-to-date database of child labour is a major hindrance in formulating policies and legislation that will work towards elimination of child labour in the country,” says the statement.

It says that after the 18th Amendment, all matters relating to child labour have been devolved to the provinces. In this regard, the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is the only province that has enacted legislation on child labour by passing the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Employment of Children Act 2015. The provinces of Punjab and Sindh have introduced legislation but it is yet to be passed by the provincial assemblies while Balochistan still has to draft a law on child labour. The government of Punjab has however enacted legislation regarding child labour in the brick kiln sector via promulgation of the Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Ordinance 2016. In the absence of any new legislation regarding child labour, the previous Employment of Children Act 1991 is enforced across the provinces.

SPARC called on the provincial governments to firstly, create adequate budgetary allocations to allow for a provincial survey to ascertain the total number of child labourers in the country. The organisation also urged the provincial and national government to formulate legislation and take administrative measures to curtail child labour in the country, specifically by taking action to ensure implementation of Article 25-A of the Constitution in all four provinces.