LAWS AND FACTS RELATING TO CHILD LABOUR

IN PAKISTAN.

Thesis statement: Laws Relating To Child

Labour Are Ineffective in Pakistan, There
Should Be Need of Proper Legislation on It.

Submitted to Sir Mirza Rizwan Baig

Submitted by Faisal Bashir

Roll No 8697

Department of Law
L.L.B (Hons) 8th Semester Evening

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Abstract
Child labour is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. The term
“Child Labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their
potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It is
very difficult to make a precise estimate of the magnitude of child labour in Pakistan on
account of numerous limitations basic being a lack of data. The last child labour survey
conducted by the government was in 1996. According to the survey, 3.3 million of the 40
million children were found to be economically active on a full-time basis. Of the 3.3
million working children, 73 percent (2.4 million) were boys and 27 percent (0.9 million)
were girls. Officially children made up about seven percent of the total work force
according to the findings of the survey. In Pakistan there are many acts present in like
The Employment of Children Act 1991, The Employment of Children Rules 1995. Other
than these two, there are other laws as well which deal with the employment of children
and regulate the working conditions for employed child workers. Mines Act, 1923, the
Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933, The Factories Act, 1934 The, Road Transport
Workers Ordinance, 1961 Shops and Establishments Ordinance, 1969, Merchant
Shipping Ordinance, 2001. But these have lost their effectiveness. It is necessary that new
legislation should be made on child labour which covers whole area of
child Labour. For example if we look at the constitution there are many issues relating to
child labour on which constitution is silent on them. Similarly if we look at the
employment of children act this act is legalizing the child labour due to this reason the
purpose of this act has vanished. Some other provision of above said acts are also
defective. So these acts should reenact with suitable amendment.

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Introduction

International Labour Office (ILO) defines child labor as any activity other than study or
play, paid or unpaid, that is carried out by a person under the age of 15 (14 in certain
countries). According to ILO estimates, over 200 million children are engaged in some
form of child labor and over eight million are engaged in dangerous and abusive forms of
child labor. Pakistan has a significant number of children participating in economic
activities and contributing considerably to household income. 5–14 years of children are
performing a wide range of business activities. Some are helping their parents in house-
keeping, some are selling newspapers or cigarettes in the streets, while some are working
in formal and informal sectors of market. Rana Eijaz (2008) defines child labour as the
participation of school-age children (5–15 years) in the labour force, i.e., work for wage
or in household enterprises to earn a living for themselves or to support household
income.

Child Labour is work performed by a child that is likely to interfere with his or her right
to education, or to be harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social
development. All work done by children under the age of 15 and dangerous work done by
children under the age of 18 is illegal. (Convention on the Rights of the Child)

Experience has shown that withdrawing children from the worst forms is possible, but
cannot be successful without a strong political will. This ‘will’ must be embedded in a
national policy that addresses issues such as improved legislation and enforcement;
improved methodologies for identifying these children; awareness raising at all levels of
society and the provision of viable alternatives for the children and their families,
including rehabilitation measures.

Allah has given human beings the boon of wisdom and discretion to think upon the signs
of the universe and to draw conclusions. That is the reason why they disclose the hidden
facts of it and its structure and have made remarkable progress in many walks of life.
Children are the flowers of heaven. They are the most beautiful and creation of God.
They are innocent both inwardly and outwardly. No doubt, they are the beauty of this
world. But due to child labour this beauty of the world is bleaching.

Objectives
 First objective of my proposal is to reduce the number of child labour in all
sectors.
 Second objective of my proposal is to educate the public, business, and
governments to broaden awareness and understanding about the nature of child
labor exploitation in the Pakistan.

 Third objective of my proposal is to urge the Parliament of the Pakistan to act

quickly to ratify and enforce all the International Labor Organization and United
Nations Conventions that affect child labor.

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  Forth objective of my proposal is to making state accountable and responsive on
social welfare / security measures and child rights.

 Fifth objective of my proposal is to making Improve access and quality education

equitably for all children.

Thesis Statement

Laws relating to child labour are ineffective in Pakistan, there should be need of proper
legislation on it.

Literature View

Review of related literature will be helpful for those who would be interested to conduct
further research on this topic. There are some books and articles on my proposal. The
author of those books and articles have discusses child labour in Pakistan and its laws.

Child labour phenomenon is common in developing countries and there is growing

literature on this issue and empirical evidences as well. Asia has a large number of child
domestic workers. These include children working as child minders, maids, cooks,
cleaners, gardeners and general house-helps. The lack of information is major cause of
not having thorough analysis of incidence and nature of child domestic workers in many
Asian countries. However, there is not a significant reduction in child labour
participation, especially in Asia. Two main characteristics of Asian child labour that
distinguish it from child labour elsewhere is that a large part of Asian child labour is in
the form of child domestic workers; and the bulk of Asian child labour is in the 10–14
years age group. Ray. (2004, p. 25-30).

Maitra and Ray (2010) used data from three countries Peru, Pakistan and Ghana to
examine at once child labour and child schooling. They argue that poverty is the major
cause of child labour. The Pakistani results also draw attention to the need to target
households living below the poverty line. Ray (2010, p 10-12).

ILO estimates for developing countries indicate total number of working children aged 5–
14 years at 250 million. Of these, 120 million work full-time, and 24 million are below
the age of 10. In absolute terms child labor is most prominent in Asia, because about 150
million working children live in Asia. In Asia and Latin America, which are more
urbanized, child labor is also considered an urban phenomenon. Child workers are
equally liable to the dangers faced by adult workers under parallel conditions, but they
are more fatally affected because of their different anatomical, physiological and
psychological characteristics. Unlike adults, children do not fight against their coercion
through unions‖. Those poor household, which are living, close to the subsistence level,
and if they are induced to send their children to school instead of work, an exogenous

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shock (for example, poor harvest) would have an unreasonably harsh impact on their
welfare. Canagarajah and Nielsen. (1999, p 12).

Much of the research papers have focused this issue all over the world specially for
developing economies. Internationally there has a comparative study on this issue; like
comparative study between continents (Pushkar & Ray, 2002), comparative study
between countries like Pakistan and Ghana (Bhalotra, et al, 1997), Pakistan and Peru
(Ray, 2000), Pakistan and Nepal (Ray, 2001) Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and China etc.
Within Pakistan there has also a comparative work between two districts (Pakpattan and
Faisalabad) of Punjab by (Rana, 2003). By reviewing the literature still there is a gap we
find in Pakistan that of a comparative study on child labour participation between Sindh
and Punjab. Different authors have extracted data from different sources like; Ray (2000,
2000a) obtained data for children in the age group of 10–14 years from Pakistan
Integrated Household Survey 1991, Burki and Shahnaz (2001) used data for children in
the age group of 10–14 years from the Labour Force Survey 1996-97. Apart from these
reviews many other researchers have also worked out on this issue like; (Blunch &
Verner 2000; Deb & Rosati 2004; Blunch et al & Dar et al 2002; Cockburn 2001)

Article 11 (3) of Pakistan’s Constitution prohibits employment of children below the age
of 14 years in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. The terms
“factory”, and “mine” are not defined in the Constitution but are defined in the general
Acts governing these establishments. However “hazardous employment” is not defined
under any law in Pakistan. Constitution of Pakistan. (1973)

The Shops & Establishments Ordinance 1969 prohibits employment of a below 14 years
old child in any establishment. The term “establishment” is defined under this law to
mean a shop, commercial establishment, industrial establishment, private dispensary,
maternity home, hotel, restaurant, cinema, theater, circus, or other place of public
entertainment; other establishments could be added by the Provincial Government to this
definition through notification in the official Gazette.( The Shops & Establishments
Ordinance)

The Merchant Shipping Act 1923 states that no child below 14 years of age be engaged
or carried to sea to work in any capacity in any ship registered in Pakistan; or in any
foreign ship except in a school, or training ship; or in a ship in which all persons
employed are members of one family; or in a home-trade ship of a burden not exceeding
300 tons; or where the child is employed on nominal wages and is in the charge of his
father or other adult near male relative. As can be seen from the provisions of this Act,
there are several loopholes in this Act that can enable an employer to employ child labor.
(The Merchant Shipping Act)

Probably the only law in Pakistan that presently prohibits employment of children below
the age of 18 years is the Road Transport Workers Ordinance 1961 which governs the
conditions of employment of road transport workers. For employment of drivers, the
minimum age is fixed at 21 years.( Road Transport Workers Ordinance)

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The Employment of Children Act 1991 (“ECA”) repealed the Employment of Children
Act 1938 but basically is similar to it. Some salient new features of this law are its stricter
penalties; and supersession of its definition of child over that contained in the Factories
Act; the Mines Act and the Shops & Establishments Ordinance. In case of the former
two, it has been to the detriment of children as the age has been lowered from 15 to 14
years. (The Employment of Children Act)

ECA’s section 2 (iii) defines a `child’ to mean “a person who has not completed his
fourteenth year of age.” Its section 3 then states that: “No child shall be employed or
permitted to work in any of the occupation set forth in Part I of the Schedule or in any
workshop wherein any of the processes set forth in Part II of that Schedule is carried on:
Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any establishment wherein such
process is carried on by the occupier with the help of his family or to any school
established, assisted or recognized by Government.” The occupations listed in
Schedule’s Part I are outdated; as a matter of fact, the list has been copied from the
Employment of Children Act 1938 the law which the ECA repealed. PART II of the
Schedule is again a reproduction of the 1938 law but it at least covers areas in which
children are still employed in large numbers. The Federal Government is empowered to
add any occupation or process to the Schedule but it has so far not found the time to add
any in the Schedule. Or perhaps it seriously and sincerely believes that there is no child
labor problem in the country. The proviso cited in the above Section 3 is also exploited
by employers as they can always use the defense that the child laborer is only assisting
his family in the establishment. The fact that a school established, assisted or recognized
by Government is exempted from ECA is also absurd as this gives an impression that
children employed by the Government somehow are not children.
(The Employment of Children Act).

One of the major criticism of ECA is that it legitimizes child labor. Any Government
basically has three options with regard to child labor. Either it ignores it, or it bans it
altogether, or it regulates it like any other labor. The Government of Pakistan as well as
the Provincial Governments till to date have basically been ignoring it but laws like the
ECA at least exist on the statute books that give child labor a legitimacy which is non-
existent in the Developed world. There is almost a universal ban on child labor in most of
the countries in the world the nations in the South Asia being an exception.
(Anees Jelani).

Research Methodology

The research will need a specific type of investigation to meet the objectives of the
research and prove either viability of the hypotheses. Keeping in view the research work
a series of steps may be undertake like content analysis on laws of child labour in
Pakistan. Afterword qualitative analysis of child labour laws in Pakistan will be carried
out this will enable the research to meet its objectives. For the sake of information
regarding the implementation of child labour laws and for its betterment several books,
newspapers, magazine, law digests and journals will be consulted. After the compilation
of the whole data inductive way of investigation will help to draw the conclusions.

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References

Articles

1. Addison, T., Bhalotra, S., Coulter, F. and Heady, C. (1997) ‗Child Labour in
Pakistan and Ghana: a comparative study Centre for Development Studies,
University of Bath, United Kingdom.

2. Rana, Eijaz (2008) Gender Analysis of Children‘s Activities in Pakistan‖, The

Pakistan Development Review 47:2 pp. 169–195.

3. Barki, Abid.A and Fasih, Tazeen (1998) Households‘ Non-leisure Time

Allocation for Children and Determinants of Child Labour in Punjab, Pakistan‖
The Pakistan Development Review 37: 4 Part II, pp. 37:4, 899–914.

4. Ray, R. (2001) Child Labour and Child Schooling in South Asia: A Cross
Country Study of their Determinants‖ Australian national university, ASARC
Working Papers.

5. Ray, R. (2000). Analysis of child labour in Peru and Pakistan: A comparative

study Journal of Population Economics.

6. Ray, R. (2000) Analysis of child labour in Peru and Pakistan: A comparative study‖
Journal of Population Economics, 2000, Volume 13, Number 1, Pages 3-19

Books

1. Chaudry.A (1992). A srudy of the working children. Lahore.

2. Nanman. (2001). Bonded labour in Pakistan: International labour organization.

3. Kemal. (1994). Child labour in Pakistan: UNICEF/PIDE.

4. The Employment of Children Act. (1991)

5. The Employment of Children Rules (1995)

6. Mines Act. (1923)

7. The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act (1933)

8. The Factories Act (1934)

9. The Road Transport Workers Ordinance. (1961)

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 10. Shops and Establishments Ordinance. (1969)

11. Merchant Shipping Ordinance. (2001)

Websites

1. https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/wh
at_is_child_labor.html

2. http://www.labourunity.org/child.htm

3. www.paycheck.pk/main/labour-laws/fair-treatment/child-labour

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_Pakistan

5. http://www.ilo.org/legacy/english/regions/asro/newdelhi/ipec/respons
es/pakistan/national.htm

6. http://www.hamariweb.com/articles/article.aspx?id=91

7. http://labourwatchpakistan.com/?p=2638

8. http://labourwatchpakistan.com/?p=2638

9. http://labourwatchpakistan.com/?p=2106

10.http://www.hamariweb.com/articles/article.aspx?id=91

11.http://labourwatchpakistan.com/?p=2106