The International Labour Organisation (ILO), UNICEF and UNESCO on Monday called for renewed efforts to end the worst forms of child labour in Pakistan.
“Human Rights and Social Justice – let’s end Child Labour” is this year’s theme. Child labour is bad for business, it hampers economic growth and prosperity and blocks social progress – there can be no social justice with child labour, said Margaret Reade Rounds, Officer in Charge, ILO Pakistan.
This year the World Day Against Child Labour spotlights the right of all children to be protected from child labour and from other violations of fundamental human rights. Pakistan recently experienced multiple natural disasters in 2010 and 2011 which rendered millions of people across Pakistan without livelihoods.
This has resulted in increased vulnerability to child labour in flood affected areas. Provinces such as Punjab are extending the reach of programmes to withdraw children from the labour force, however insufficient data is an obstacle.
According to most recent ILO global estimates around 215 million children worldwide “labour”, with more than half this number involved in its worst forms.
According to UNESCO’s Representative to Pakistan, Dr Kozue Kay Nagata, “Education is a basic human right, and child labour deprives young children from availing their fundamental right to free education. When children are involved in laborious work and deprived from attending school, the opportunity for them to fully develop their potential and become a productive and civilized member of the society is missed.
This situation is worsened by the growing problem of insufficient access to schooling. Today, over 7 million children of age 5 to 9 years are not in schools. Most of these out of school children, it is anticipated, are subject to child labour. An effective strategy towards elimination of child labour will be to enforce Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, by making education completely free and compulsory at least up to secondary level.
7 million Pakistani children out of schools: UNESCO
