CHILD LABOR (PRESENTATION)

WHAT IS "CHILD LABOR"?

"Child labor" is work for children who are under the legal age required
for labor (i.e. 18) & such work harms or exploits them physically,
mentally, morally & by blocking their access to education and their
legal rights.

Contemporary Perspective:

On the other hand the rather optimistic current International

perspective states that if the child after the age of 13 is willing and
physically & mentally healthy enough; not all work is bad for his/her
growth in the present competitive markets until and unless they are
given this opportunity by his/her own personal choice. Some social
scientists point out such work as completely unobjectionable — except
for some thing about the work that makes the child deprive of his/her
rights.

Example:

For instance, a child who works after school with the choice of his
interest might actually benefit from learning how to work, gaining
responsibility, and earn a bit of money. But what if the child is not paid
or is under paid? What if the child is made to work with force under
conditions that are hazardous to his health & so on? Then he or she is
getting exploited through child labor...

Reasons for Exploitation:

We would start off by pointing out the reasons for the lack of a stable
environment in our country relative to child labor and describe how
each sector is responsible for exploiting children’s rights.

Policies Implemented by Pakistan’s Legislative Bodies.

Government’s Role.

Manufacturers/ Industrialists Role.

Consumer’s Role.
Economic Factors.

Policies Implemented by legislative bodies:

Although many articles and policies are written by the legal authorities
in Pakistan; unfortunately none are exercised towards its practical
implementation. And of these we would emphasize on “The
Employment of Children Act (ECA), 1991” and show how even after its
implementation it still suffers the dilemma of rational justification.

• The Employment of Children Act (ECA), 1991:

• The Employment of Children Act, 1991 (Part I) states that a

'child' means any person who is under the age of 14. The Act
bans employment of children under this age in occupations that
might deprive them of their rights at work.

• Part II of this acts states that:

The prohibition against employing children in hazardous

labor & the regulations governing the working conditions of
children under 14 do not apply to family run establishments,
and school ( training institutes) established, assisted or
organized by the Government.

The point to be noted here is that the Employment of Children Act,

1991 although prohibits the employment of children in a variety of
occupations but allows you an exception for family-run enterprises or
in schools and training institutes organized by the Government.
Claiming that our Government training institutes are undoubtedly
secure for a child under the age of 14 and such a place does not
require the regulation of this Act. When at the same time our
Government organized professionals are known for their corruption.
This shows how our current policies are maintained for securing the
favoritism of our senior officials.
Government’s ROLE:

It is interesting to note that the laws implemented by the Government

limits the workday of a child to seven hours, including a one-hour
break after three hours of labor, which is no where to be seen. A
working child must be given at least one day off per week. It is illegal
to require or allow a child to work overtime.

Violations of these provisions can result in a maximum of one-year

prison term and/or a you can just pay a fine of 20,000 rupees and get it
over with, which of course is no where close to the amount of revenue
these employers generate by paying low wages to the children they
illegally employ and in some cases still benefit the government
through paying taxes.

In Pakistan the Majority of the working children are exploited in the

agricultural sector whereas others also found working in
manufacturing, trade etc. For now we would specifically focus on
children engaged in the manufacturing of carpets. According to the
UNICEF, over one million children work in the carpet industry (which
generate over 250 million dollars in exports).

A baseline survey of the carpet-weaving industry, published in 2001,

estimated that 107,065 children between the ages of 5 to 14 were
weaving carpets in the province of the Punjab alone. Of those,
approximately 60 percent were girls. And to our interest is the fact that
how our foreign exchange reserves get so overwhelmingly nutritious
by the export of these carpets acclaimed and greeted with the best
branded labels sold in the leading western markets of the world. The
reason is as obvious as our ignorance in enjoying these luxurious
goods where our government cares the least for a lack of
implementation of policies although written in the finest inks by the
marching quills of our Legislative bodies.

Subsequently we proudly force the poor class of people to live under

bad health conditions, lower education, insufficient water supply,
polluted environment, prevailing diseases etc which eventually leaves
them with no other choice but to have their children exploited through
child labor a step further.
MANUFACTURERS/INDUSTRIALISTS ROLE:

The employers’ perception in Pakistan’s carpet industry claims that

children have quick minds & learn fast. They can easily tie the tight
knots of the higher-priced carpet. The owners of these industries claim
that they are teaching children a trade where youngsters weave the
carpets for some of the most expensive home-decorating stores in the
United States, according to loom owners & well established exporters
in Pakistan that gracefully live off of these children’s exploitation.
When European anti-child labor activists first objected to rugs made by
children working in horrific conditions, and in bonded labor, the
Europeans were opposed by rug merchants and manufacturers in
Pakistan who said that the children were simply learning traditional
skills passed down through their families.

How unfortunate it is to see how our traditions & culture is getting

discriminated by these leading industrialists so open heartedly
claiming that our people consider it a tradition to stay backwards. As
these industrialists require low skilled and intensive labor; they use
every means to exploit these children.

Where 34 percent of the people living below the poverty line, the
monetary requirement of these families are in turn, exploited by
employers who hire children often paying them a fraction of what they
do to their adult counter parts. Furthermore these bonded child
laborers are forced to take loans from these industrialists at high
interest rates which in order to attempt to repay means they have to
accept low wages.

People cannot run away as there is no where to go and in any case the
rest of the debtors family would then become liable for the debt and
are forced to sell their children into what is nothing short of forced
slavery.

Economically this eventually leads to the irregular distribution of

wealth in our society, making the owners of these industries wealthier
by suppressing & depriving the working class of their rights leading
their children to suffer. Where as the owners keep gaining market
power in that industry leading to monopoly.
CONSUMER’S ROLE:

Many children in hazardous and dangerous jobs are in danger of injury,

even death.

Beyond compassion, consider what today Pakistan’s child will become

in the future. Between today and the year 2020, the vast majority of
new workers, citizens and new consumers — whose skills and needs
will build the world’s economy and society — will come from
developing countries. Over that 20-year period, some 730 million
people will join the world’s workforce.

And the lack of abolition of Child Labor in Pakistan would make our
labor force less than 10 percent of the part of those new workers which
would come from developing nation. How many will have had to work
at an early age, destroying their health or hampering their education?

Unfortunately Consumers’ perception in Pakistan even today;

immensely suffers from the lack of exposure that provides them with
the vision to understand how a major force of their markets would get
isolated due to their consumption of products that are produced by
these industrialists that use child labor. Top selling brands of the world
(like Nike and Calvin Klein) are the ones that have been exploiting
children in Pakistan for decades. And the domestic consumers using
most of these products directly influence and support these activities.
This provides for the backbone of developing such goods which
eventually develop into luxurious goods making up for the major
portion of exports in Pakistan.
Economic Factors:

In a survey of Pakistan's sports goods industry, over 72 percent of child

workers who did not attend school did so because they could not afford
school fees; where Pakistan’s Government spends less than 2.5 per
cent of its GDP on the education sector.

One of the primary factors affecting living standards of the working

class in Pakistan is the lack of implementation of minimum wage
policies. Minimum Wage is an example of Government Intervention.
Although Pakistan’s 2008 budget has formally declared such policies
but their implementation never seems to take affect in informal
enterprises or private ownerships.

The economic factors that further give rise to child labor in Pakistan
can be divided into three categories:

1. Direct: A firm or enterprise that employs firms,

directly.

The majority of the direct employment of child labor is in the informal

sector, where children take part in performing service, small scale
manufacturing, agricultural occupations etc. Many of these children are
“hidden” workers, because they do not show up in formal labor force
statistics. This leads to exploitation of child laborers as there exists no
formal record of their employment and eventually they are subject to
no rights that justify their earnings.

Eventually several factors still discourage parents from sending their

children to school. These include traditional patterns of employment
and payment; lenient enforcement of labor laws which allows the hiring
of children; and the lack, inadequacy and expense of schools and child
care.

2. INDIRECT: Goods and services produced by

children are purchased from other firms:
Globally it should be noted that some international firms hire children
indirectly, and the products of these children’s work produced
domestically are used by other companies in developed countries.
Furthermore this dimension is getting increasingly complex as formal
sector firms purchase goods & services made by informal sector firms
or enterprises in which these goods are produced through child labor.
Examples of companies that have discovered inter-firm connections to
child labor include importers (IKEA) who sell hand made rugs from
Pakistan.

3. EXTERNAL: A firm or enterprise plays a part

beyond its direct business interests – in shaping
opinions and policies concerning child labor in
the local economy.

For reasons of altruism, image or other motivations, some firms play

active roles to shape local-economy attitudes toward child labor and
the educational institutions and social services that affect children.
This third dimension has increased in prominence as global economic
integration has led international business to play a larger role in
shaping the public policies of governments around the world.

Even if international firms do not themselves employ children, they

operate within a global system of commerce, manufacturing,
procurement and trade that –in part does.
SUGGESTIONS:

The policies maintained by the legislative bodies of Pakistan

should be revised in order to implement eradication of child labor
at all levels regardless of it being a Government enterprise or an
informal firm.

The government should make all schooling cost-effective and more

important, poorer families, attractive and relevant to the needs and
aspirations of working children and their families.

As mentioned earlier one of the primary factors affecting living

standards of the working class in Pakistan is the lack of
implementation of minimum wage policies. Minimum Wage an example
of Government Intervention would allow the working class to maintain
an affective living standard required for survival in Pakistan.

Having minimum wage policies affective according to number of

households, would not force families to send their children to work.
This would eventually avoid irregular distribution of wealth towards
employers that own these industries.

A global campaign should be developed in Pakistan to eradicate child

labor. This campaign should ban from international trade; goods made
by children. This linkage between child labor and trade presently
makes globalization responsible for child labor to re-emerge.

Our Government benefits most from child labor through International

trade where cheap labor costs give rise to healthy foreign reserves.
Exports of such products should be eliminated by the government and
strict measure should be taken towards developing skilled labors.

Child Labor had declined in developed countries in any case, due to a

combination of several factors. These include the increasing
sophistication of technology in the workplace (reducing the demand for
low-skilled workers), greater productivity and consequently higher
wages (reducing the need to send children to work instead of school)
and higher school attendance (reducing the supply of child labor).
 “Child Labor” is now understood to mean children working in both the
formal and informal economic sectors, in the legal work and illegal
occupations. That poses a new question: What kind of “child labor”
should be of concern to international business? Or Globalization? Such
Awareness programs should be launches all over Pakistan using all
forms of media.

The Economics of Child Work:

Economically, one of the ways to understand Child Labor is in the

contents of supply and demand relationships. This relationship can be

Supply and demand of labor on the national and international level.

Supply and demand of labor at the level of the enterprise or the firm.

And so on…

Long-term Economic Suggestion:

Keeping the Supply-Demand perception we can suggest that if

Pakistan could effectively outlaw child labor. Three consequences
would follow:

(1)The families (and the economy) would lose the income generated
by children.

(2)The supply of labor would fall, driving up wages for adult

workers; and

(3)The opportunity cost of a child’s working would shrink, making

staying in school (assuming schools are available) much more
attractive.
In principle, a virtuous circle would follow with more schooling,
and the children would get more skills and become more
productive adults, raising wages and family welfare. To the
extent that the demand for labor is elastic (adaptable, flexible),
however, the increase in wages implies that the total number of
jobs would fall.

The reason for this model’s short term failure is that child work
results from complex interweaving of need, tradition, culture,
family dynamics and the availability of alternative activities for
children.

Short-term Economic Suggestions:

Under agreements with the ILO and UNICEF, currently under age
workers getting removed from their jobs should be put into
industry-supported schools and paid stipends amounting to part
of the money they had been earning in their jobs. The schools
should be supported with money contributed not only by
Government and other organizations but also by the associated
manufacturers that had previously exploited these children
through child labor, although for a temporary period of time.

Although these programs have encountered some success but

also several problems in their implementation, for example in
Sialkot, families whose mother and children left work; suffered a
twenty percent fall in income. Some social workers and non-
governmental organizations think some aspects such as income-
replacement subsidies for children taken out of work and put into
schools, may be too expensive to replicate on a large term basis,
initially. Therefore the most appropriate strategy becomes by
sending children for a part time work, part time school
arrangement rather than from a plan that involves complete
substitution of school for work.
CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN

Submitted by:

Beenish Jabbar

Anum Shahid

Mariam Sikander

Sibgha Iqbal