LAHORE: The Child Rights Movement Punjab and parliamentarians on Thursday strongly urged Punjab government for early prohibition of domestic child labour.
The demand was made in a consultative meeting on child domestic rights arranged by CRM Punjab at a local hotel.
The CRM said that two major laws enacted in 2016 by Punjab Provincial Assembly had not covered the issue of child domestic labour.
“Laws enacted during 2016 are not fully aligned with Pakistan’s International obligations under United National Convention on the Rights of Children, International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No 138 and 182 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 8.7, which call on the global community to ‘take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2030 end child labour in all its forms,” it stated.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Chairperson Dr Mehdi Hassan said the issues of vulnerable segments of society like children should be a top priority of the government. He urged the early initiation of nationwide child labour surveys to actually assess the magnitude of child labour, anyhow the survey should also include children working in domestic labour or in other informal sectors.
Child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that child labour in Pakistan included child domestic labour, hazardous work in numerous occupations and processes, particularly in the informal economy in rural and urban settings, and in supply chains of a variety of products.
Labour expert Iftikhar Ahmed said that Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2014-15 revealed that 3.042 million children (between the ages of 10 to 17 years), representing 16% of the total children in this age group, were in employment in Punjab.
“The number of children involved in child labour in the entire age range, ie 10-17 years, is 2.083 million. Out of this 2.083 million, 1.19 million (57%) are in the 10-14 years range while the remaining are in 15-17 years age group and engaged in hazardous work,” he said. “We have also looked at this data disaggregating it on the basis of gender and area. Out of the children aged 10-17 years in child labour, 68% (1.40 million) are males and 80% (1.68 million) come from rural areas. The share of those engaged in hazardous work (15-17 years) is 43% (0.886 million) of total children engaged in child labour (2.083 million),” he said.
