Number of street children in urban centres reaches 1.5m

Islamabad: The number of street children in urban centres of Pakistan has reached 1.5 million with many of them working under hazardous circumstances in industries and establishments.
The statistics make part of the two researches on child labour tiled “Street Children of Pakistan and A Comparison of School Dropout Rates” and “Child Labor in District Haripur” released by Society for the Protection of the Children (SPARC).
The reports were released in a seminar on “Child Labour and Children in Modern Day Slavery” organized by SPARC in collaboration with American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (ACILS), Child Rights Coalition (CRC) Asia and National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan (NCHR). The event featured a panel discussion on key issues associated with child labour and children in modern day slavery in Pakistan followed by an evocative theatre performance by street children to highlight the issues of child labour.
During the seminar SPARC unveiled two of its latest researches on child labour. SPARC estimates the number of street children at 1.5 million in urban centres of Pakistan. Furthermore, during the independent child labour survey in District Haripur by SPARC, it was discovered that many children were working under hazardous circumstances in industries and establishments with an average of 12 hours of daily work for remuneration as small as Rs50 to Rs100 (daily). Furthermore, 86 per cent of these children were school dropouts and 56 per cent children had no interest in continuing their studies due to multiple reasons such as; corporal punishment, and poverty.
The panellists at the seminar included Advocate Supreme Court and Founder of SPARC Anees Jillani, Human Rights Activist Tahira Abdullah, Member National Assembly Nafisa Khattak, Member NCHR Chaudhry Muhammad Shafiq, Chairman, NCHR Justice Retd. Ali Nawaz Chohan, National Project Coordinator at International Labour Organization Abid 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.