Daily Times

After every unfortunate incident of child rape and murder, people demand justice for the victim. They use social media to get the attention of the decision-makers. Majority of the time, people’s voices turn into a top trend on twitter. Recently eight years old domestic worker Zohra Shah was killed by a couple in Rawalpindi, and within hours of the incident, #JusticeforZohraShah was the top trend in Pakistan. This is a very positive trend that people belonging to different fields are raising their voice for a common cause. One of the key features of these trends is demanding immediate and short-term solutions rather than a sustainable one.

No doubt, child labour is a global issue; it is estimated that about 152 million children are engaged in child labour around the world. About 72 million of which are involved in hazardous work. There are frequent reports of violence against children engaged in child labour. This issue is claiming the lives of the children. Besides this, children involved in child labour worked for long hours under dangerous conditions.

This is poverty that pushes children into the labour market. As a result, nearly 44% of children are out of school

Child labour might be going up due to current corona crisis and its impact on household economic wellbeing. According to UNICEF and ILO report, child labour has decreased by 94 million since 2000. The report highlighted that COVID-19 could result in more poverty and this factor may push millions of children into the labour market. Because the crisis is not yet over and households will use every means to survive in the crisis. It is estimated that a one percent increase in poverty would lead to a 0.7% increase in child labour in certain countries.

Nearly, 38.8% of people are multidimensionally poor in Pakistan. It is not difficult to imagine how the current crisis is hurting the ability of the poor to feed their children. According to the UNDP recent estimate, poverty has declined by 40% to 24.3% in 2015. As per IMF prediction, up to 40% population is living below the poverty line in COVID-19 situation.

In Pakistan, nearly 16% of the children between 5-17 ages are engaged in child labour. Majority 56% of children are employed in agriculture, nearly 15% in services and 7% in manufacturing. They worked in an unsafe, unhealthy environment and they are subject to torture, abuse and neglect. The child labour has multiple negative consequences including physical, psychological, moral and social

This is poverty that pushes children into the labour market. As a result, nearly 44% of children are out of school. Although article 25(A) of the constitution promises that “the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years”.

When it comes to the age of employment, the constitution of Pakistan restricts child labour to 14 age. For example, the Constitution of Pakistan, Article 11(3) states that no child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment.

The definition of the child is different in different laws. For instance, the Punjab restriction on employment of children act, 2016 stated that child means a person who has not attained the age of fifteen years and the employment of children act, 1991 set the age of the child to 14. Pakistan has ratified the United Nation-Convention on Rights of the child (UN-CRC). As per UN-CRC, every person below the age of 18 is a child. Constitutional amendment coupled with uniformity in the various legislative pieces is required to discourage child employment.

But only policy reforms will not bring fruits until and unless the root cause is addressed. Without any doubt, poverty is the core cause of child labour. Absence of sufficient economic support to the poor segment is fueling child labour. Pakistan only spent only 2 percent of the GDP as compared to the globe average 11.2 percent. The UN-ESCAP report ranked Pakistan at the bottom in terms of spending on social protection.

Civil society must raise demand to address the root causes of child labour. Immediate solution will only provide short term results. Sustainable outcome required to eliminate this evil from our society. We can save children from child labour by increasing investment in social protection leading to poverty reduction. Ensuring 100% school enrollment is not possible without beating poverty.

The author is an Islamabad based development professional and occasionally contributes to national dailies