Daily Times

Where the world is daunted by the number of around 70 million at the same time this menace has intimidated Pakistan by registering approximately 3.8 million children as child laborer. These children are not only engaged in childhood apprenticeship but also exposed to various hazardous sectors for instance agriculture, brick kiln, mining, auto-workshops and leather industries etc. This is inflicting both physical and mental mutilation beside the social injustice by keeping these children away from their basic right to education.

Apart from many others, the avaricious entrepreneurship and selfish parents who are non-conformist to human rights are two main factors that are not facilitating to overcome this social evil in letter and spirit. The materialistic attitude of aforementioned agents is just because they consider children as a cheap source of human resource and income respectively. Where a certain level of education, awareness and social responsibility is required to be imparted among aforementioned agents, at the same a comprehensive legal framework has the same importance to eradicate child labor from Pakistan.

Like many other successful countries for instance USA and all European developed countries who have won the fight against the menace of child labor, Pakistan also possesses a number of legal provisions in its constitution to prevent the child labor. However, the failure may be attributed to gaps pertaining to implementation and enforcement of preserved articles and sections of the constitution pertaining to child labor.

Under article 16 of Constitution of Pakistan 1956, no person may be held in slavery; forced labor except for state is prohibited; and more conspicuously no child below the age of fourteen may be engaged in any employment that is hazardous to his physical or mental health. The constitution of Pakistan does not rest by declaring child labor illegal only but also moves one step ahead by bounding the state to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age between 5 to 16 years under article 25 (A) of Constitution 1973. Although, the 18th amendment raises a discrepancy by defining the age limit for a child as 16 years for employment that contradicts with the Employment of Children Act 1991, which mentions the age of a child as 14-years but it does not challenge the sanctity of the issue.

Post 18th amendment scenario, the provinces including Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) passed various acts in the years 2016 and onward. In 2016, Punjab province has passed the Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Act that defined the age of 15-years for employment and 18-years for hazardous employment. Another legislation tilted Punjab Prohibition of Child Labor at Brick Kilns Act to prohibit the job of less than14-year children at brick kiln is also in place since then. During the same year, the Sindh province has passed laws to prohibit children under 15-years age from working in factories and commercial establishments. It also passed the Sindh Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act 2016 along with Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act to discourage the tend towards child labor. KPK province also has Child Protection and Welfare Act but it addresses the concerns of children’s physical abuse but it is not that much comprehensive to dissuade child labor holistically. The province of Baluchistan remained far behind to define minimum age for employment and hazardous nature of work. Therefore, the Employment of Children Act 1991 and Rules 1995 are equally applicable in federal capital and Baluchistan. It is quite disheartening to mention that the prevailing miseries of child labor could not be averted even in the presence of afore-mentioned legal umbrella.

Apart from above-said legal remedies a number of other development initiatives by the federal and provincial governments have also been taken independently and in partnership of ILO to eliminate child labor by focusing technical and skill education but the achievements remained lackluster.

The present gloomy situation may not be attributed to inefficacy of the legislative paradigm but one has to accept the responsibility as the laws and acts never fail itself, but the authorities which exercise the laws make them fail. The public sector functionaries concerned, who playing the role of black sheep must be held responsible for not implementing the legal tools in hand in the best public interest.

One should be made accountable for not ensuring the admission of around 25 million children in the schools. One must be made answerable that why voracious employers are free to hire under age children even for hazardous jobs.

The government is required to take a lead to implement the available legislative apparatus meticulously to achieve the desired results regarding elimination of child labor by setting a stipulated time period. The introduction of IT based interventions may help to implement the existing legal framework by establishing dashboards entailing the data registry pertaining to employee record of all those business traits where the incidence of child labor is higher. The role of education related departments might also be broadened to aware the poor parents informally who are compelled to sell their children for meager amounts due their penury.

Only a full proof system of continued surveillance by the child labor laws implementing public institutions with strict accountability within and outside the departments may help us to get rid of this menace. The protracted situation of failure would that only cause us suffering from various social evils in the present but it may also put the future of our whole nation at stake, if calculated steps are not taken to implement the legislative apparatus with full zeal and zest.

Published in Daily Times, August 3^rd 2018.