A Global Situation
According to the estimates of ILO there were about 317 million economically active children aged 5 to 17 in 2004; of them 218 million could be regarded as child labourers. Out of these, 126 million are thought to be in the WFCL that impedes the mental, physical, emotional and moral development of these children. The corresponding figures for the narrower age group of 5 to 14 years olds are 191 million economically active children, 166 million child labourers, and 74 million children in hazardous work. The number of child labourers in both age groups of 5-14 and 5-17 fell by 11 per cent over the four years from 2000 to 2004. However, the decline was much greater for those engaged in hazardous work: by 26 per cent for the 5-17 age group and 33 per cent for 5 to 14 years-olds. Boys continued to be more involved in dangerous jobs than girls. However, the decline was marginal in the Asia and Pacific region as it still has the largest number of child workers aged 5-14 years, i.e. about 122 million. ILO has attributed the reduction in child labour to increased political will and awareness and concrete action, particularly in the field of poverty reduction and mass education that has led to a “worldwide movement against child labour”.
According to ILO with 122.3 million economically active children ages 5 to 14, Asia and the Pacific region has the highest number of working children worldwide. In the region several worst forms of child labour including child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, bonded child labour, child domestic work, hazardous child labour, and the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict or drug trafficking are prevalent. A high tolerance for child labour in many countries and political volatility and conflict in certain others (e.g. Afghanistan, Nepal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka) exacerbate the problem and can hinder the implementation of action against it. In addition, in Pakistan a large number of children are affected by devastating earthquake in Northern Areas and trouble in FATA..
Child Labour in Pakistan
| Province | Total No. of Children in age group of 5-14 years(millions) | Total No. of Economically Active Children in Age Group of 5-14 years(millions) | Ratio of Child Labour |
| Punjab | 22.63 | 1.94 | 8.6% |
| Sindh | 8.62 | 0.30 | 3.5% |
| NWFP | 6.71 | 1.06 | 15.8% |
| Baluchistan | 2.07 | 0.01 | 0.5% |
| Total for Pakistan | 40.03 | 3.31 | 8.3% |
Province-Wise Comparison of Economically Active Children
In Pakistan, up to date national data on child labour is not available, particularly, numbers of working children and those engaged in WFCL are missing However, according to the last National Survey of Child Labour, the total number of children in Pakistan in the age groups of 5-14 was 40 million. The total number of economically active children was found to be 3.3 million (or 8.3% of the total children) in the country. 67% were engaged in agriculture while 11% were in Manufacturing. Majority of the child workers (73%) were found to be boys, while 27% were girls Majority of the child workers (58.6% or 1.94 million) were found in Punjab.
The survey also found that children’s involvement in work in the rural areas is about 8 times greater than in the urban areas. One third of the working children are literate, boys being more educated than girls and urban children more than the rural children. Employment status by broad categories indicates that about 70% of the working children are unpaid family helpers. Significant urban-rural differentials are observed in their employment status. In rural areas, three fourth of the working children are working as unpaid family members, while in the urban areas this ratio is one third. About 46% of the working children work more than 35 hours per week and a good proportion work 56 hours or more. According to most of the parents surveyed, children work in order to assist in the household enterprises.
However, in the absence of up to data statistics on child labour it is difficult to calibrate the problem and its various facets.
Although majority of the child workers were found in Punjab yet by the provincial comparison of the ratios of child labour as depicted in Table 1.9 the highest ratio was found in the NWFP. Ratio of economically active girls (23 %) to boys (73%) seems to be rather depressed, possibly due to invisibility of girl workers who are mostly engaged in domestic jobs.
