CHAIRMAN : SITE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRY
                                MEMBER M/C : EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION OF PAKISTAN

FORMAL INTRODUCTION

Child Labor is the shameful consequence of an exploitative environment where the wheels of progress move due to the laborious efforts of children working alongside their adult co-workers. Child Labor is the ignominious outcome of an oppressive system where children toil and slave for a mere pittance of monetary benefit while their adult co-workers realize more wages. Child Labor is the abject result of an unfortunate situation where the tiny hands and bruised fingers lose their childhood to satisfy the economic necessities of their kith and kin.

BROAD HORIZON

PAKISTAN is a country that has been charged with the highly publicized allegations that there is a substantial pool of Child Labor in agricultural and industrial activities. The nation is accused of involving children in hazardous occupations, such as stitching soccer balls, weaving intricate designs on carpets, tanning leather in terrible conditions, making bricks in excessively heated brick-kilns, and tilling the fields in sub-human conditions. The accusations become more intense with the inclusion of street beggary, sexual abuse, domestic slavery, and what is referred to as human chattel, into their gamut.

PAKISTAN has been beset by the aggravation of the economic crisis, the discordant political upheaval, and the parochial, sectarian, and ethnic polarization at a very crucial juncture of her history. At the same time, there has been a criminal neglect of the basic facilities for the populace. The scarce financial resources of PAKISTAN are earmarked for debt-servicing and defense obligations. The figures allocated for education and health are a pathetic 1.6% and 1.0% of GDP respectively. The adult literacy rate is a distressing 35% taking into account the most lax standards. PAKISTAN stands 138 on the list of 174 nations in terms of the UNDP human development index.

PAKISTAN is building up a gigantic collection of illiterates. There are over 32 million adult illiterates plus over 7 million children aged 5-15 who do not attend school. The dropout rate is a staggering 45%, which translates into another 7 million leaving whatever form of schooling they attended and where they had not yet learnt the basic three R’s. The gross primary enrolment is only 30% among females while for males it is 57%. Similarly, secondary gross enrolment is 23% for females and 46% for males. The ratio of illiteracy among 15 years old is 86% for females and 59% for males.

PAKISTAN has 3.3 million children actively employed out of a total children population of nearly 40 million. This amounts to 8.25% according to the Child Labor Survey of 1996 conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics with the assistance of Ministry of Labor and ILO/IPEC. Punjab has 58.65% or 1.943 million, Sindh has 09.00% or 0.298 million, NWFP has 31.93% or 1.058 million, while Balochistan has 00.42% or 0.014 million children employed in various fields. 72% of the working children are based in rural areas while 28% reside in urban locations.

PAKISTAN is faced with a tall order regarding the setting up of schools and to implement the policy of universal education to the population. In fact, to achieve a 70% literacy rate, the education policy envisages the establishment of 40,000 primary schools, 20,000 mosque schools, and 75,000 non-formal schools by the year 2010. Moreover, independent experts estimate that the country needs 200,000 additional primary school teachers, 30,000 middle school teachers, and 35,000 high school teachers in the next five years to practically raise the level of literacy. However, it must be noted that the education system in the country is plagued with over 40,000 "ghost schools", while 35,000 primary schools are without any shelter, and over 100 colleges and more than 50 vocational training centers are functioning in impoverished buildings.

PAKISTAN is suffering from the delusion that the Western countries spearheaded by the United States of America will condone the proliferation of Child Labor, especially in industries that are primarily export-based. This fallacy has been accentuated by the lack of serious commitment by the political hierarchy towards elimination of this scourge. More ominously, the onslaught of anti-PAKISTAN lobby which ensured that the issue of Child Labor was blown out of proportion caught the nation’s officialdom napping. The result was an unbridled negative projection of the country in Western media. The country’s policy-makers have not yet grasped this phenomenon in its true perspective and are still under the illusion that these allegations are bargaining tactics used by the Western countries.

PAKISTAN is now all set to enter the global marketplace where there will be emphasis on competitiveness, on quality, on high-tech production facilities, and on adherence to the human rights of citizens. In this scenario, there will be microscopic stress on varied issues, especially the use of children in production of goods and services. The trade unions in Western countries are forcefully pushing their respective governments to take stern action against those employing cheaper labor, especially Child Labor. Since most of the goods produced in developing countries are deemed to be of low-priced value, and since these goods will affect the sales of comparative goods manufactured in the developed nations, the trade unions will resort to sensitizing the issues of Child Labor and environment.

MECHANISM BLUEPRINT

Child Labor elimination must be achieved but it is an uphill task because of various socio-economic factors. There is a need to change the mindset of those who are adamant that steps be taken for a rapid and accelerated approach towards achieving the goal of elimination of Child Labor. The realization must dawn on NGOs, especially in PAKISTAN, that they should look at the issue of Child Labor thru the domestic perception rather than trying to solve this problem from a westernized viewpoint, and that the answer lies in a multi-dimensional approach. The pragmatic actions to combat Child Labor include a massive combination of and an extensive emphasis on educational opportunities and vocational training programs.

The 1990 World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtiem, Thailand, constituted a global recognition of education as a fundamental right and necessity for overall human and national development. It made a commitment to ensure that the basic learning needs of all children are met. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) views on Child Labor start from the perspective that the basic occupation of youth should be their education. It subscribes to the notion that Child Labor and education are directly related. When the number of hours children work increases, the necessary time available for education decreases. Ther time spent in education relative to time at work offers children a much better return on the time invested.

According to the traditional theory of economics, food, clothes, and shelter are basic necessities of life. However, to eat with dignity, to wear with honor, and to provide shelter with self-respect, education is undoubtedly imperative. The significance of education must be pointed out clearly and must be realized by the government and the citizens. Education alone may not eliminate Child Labor, but affordable education of good quality and immediate relevance, is certainly a potent weapon, and it could prove effective and workable. However, it must be understood that the benefits of this education will only become apparent and available in the medium and long run. Notwithstanding this fact, what is more of a concern is that the short-term stakes of a family are more paramount since its very survival is inescapable. This, of course, could lead to putting the children to work if there are no concrete alternatives available to sustain the family or to have a supplement income.

These families have to be oriented towards choosing education over work and could be induced by off-setting their income loss by a concerted approach entailing a subsidy or stipend for every working child. These incentives could range from hard cash to micro-credits, health-care, text books, free school meals, uniforms, transport, or free education. An apprenticeship program could also be visualized which may combine education and training with income generation work as an alternative to Child Labor. There is also a need to create awareness among the children that entering the work force carries tremendous risk and that it could have a harmful impact on their lives. At the same time, it should be noted that already millions of children have missed the opportunity to attend schools because they were already actively employed and there was no recourse to attending school at that time. There is also a critical need to focus on the achievements of various countries regarding the sustainability and achievement of various programs designed to induce children away from work and into classrooms. PAKISTAN should also strive to get the information about the efforts and the successes or failures of education programs initiated elsewhere.

There are worldwide examples that can be emulated. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is a successful venture. In Brazil, education grants equivalent to one month’s minimum wages have been provided to very low income families who send their children to school regularly. In Tanzania, the attempt to provide quality primary education with the help of community members proved so successful that the community members started contributing 50% of the total cost of this project. In Morocco, the carpet manufacturers declared that they would provide basic education, health care, and other social services to all girls below the age of 14, and that no girl under the age of 12 would be allowed to work. In Philippines, the children living and working on the streets of Manila identify leaders among themselves to be teachers. They are then provided education in public schools and then given teacher training to enable them to conduct basic education classes using non-formal approaches.

The National Commission for Child Welfare and Development in PAKISTAN has planned the following major plans regarding the elimination of Child Labor thru education programs. These are:

• All children should receive ten years of quality basic education; education should be made compulsory, and the provision of education should be made to the maximum extent possible.
• Parents should be penalized for not enforcing the laws.
• After providing the basic education to the children, those who are not exemplary should be provided vocational training.
• The quality of education at all levels must be improved to enable the child to think to uphold moral principles, and be able to choose a way of life with human dignity.
• Improvement must be made in the training and development of teachers with conscience to protecting children from exploitation.
• The education curriculum and vocational training must be relevant to local environment and conditions.
• Education must relate to the demands of the labor market.
• Teachers must enable children to become self-reliant as well as facilitate in establishing of cooperatives and occupational groups, among youth, women, and their peers.
• Local resources must be mobilized and community participation must be enhanced to promote production and marketing thru introduction of micro financing.
• The provision of opportunities for children (boys and girls) should be equalized.
• Girl children must be provided with the opportunity, support, and counseling to enjoy access to formal and non-formal education so that they have the same opportunities as boys.
• Counseling and guidance services must be provided to assist in solving family and youth problems.
• Guidance in job selection thru services of mobile team and mass media.
• Counseling services should be provided in all schools.

• The school calendar should be adapted to the realities of the children’s need, for example, the harvest season.
• Timings of the shifts so that those who work in the morning can plan to come in the evening and not miss either school or work.
• Custom-tailored educational program can be an effective medium in instilling the need for education by the children.
• Implementation of correspondence courses for those away from schools due to whatever reason.
• Proximity of schools to children’s workplace or home.

The vocational training should be market-oriented and that vocational education should also include market ability of the learner. Vocational training should be primarily focused more to those children who are from families with low incomes and with low skills. It is more pertinent if before imparting vocational training, the children should have a dose of non-formal education (NFE). There should be a phase-wise program between NFE and vocational training whereby the children could be first inducted to NFE geared to functional literacy and basic education, and then shifted to higher level vocational skill training.

The Skill Development Council, which is a worthwhile private-public partnership of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan, ILO, etc, is loaded with success stories and the archives are full of reports related to the achievements of those who chose education and vocational training over normal pen-pushing. The SDC can also be used as a model for setting up of vocational programs and that the four SDCs in Karachi. Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta, can open up new vistas of vocational training programs. These can then be used as prototypes to develop vocational training programs for the Child Labor.

DESIRED CONCLUSIONS

Increasingly, the global economy is demanding highly skilled, well-educated workers, so it is not only morally imperative for government and employers to put to an end to Child Labor, but more importantly, it is also good business. It is high time the employers and the workers realize that they must work together on this issue, more on a bilateral level, so that when there is a need to completely eliminate Child Labor, the two partners are ready with alternative schemes to forge ahead.

The factors of inaccessibility to schools, the high fees and other charges, the poor quality of education, have surely put a spanner in the plans to eliminate Child Labor. On the other hand, a relatively good education system, easy availability of schools, education at free or at very minimal rates, etc, act as powerful brakes on some aspects of Child Labor, and these may convince the parents of children to re-think their position, and to show compassion and pragmatism in tackling the burning issue. The Chotta must be educated at all cost, and that includes strict implementation of Child Labor legislation.

The onus is upon those who have the wherewithal to undertake this gigantic task. The onus is not only upon the government because there will be minimal funding while there will lot of rhetoric. The onus is not only upon the NGOs who for altruistic motives or for other reasons flash the issue with fervor and zeal. The onus is not only upon the children who toil instead of studying and having a normal childhood that is their inalienable right. An eminent Pakistany poet has very emphatically stated:

The onus is really on all people of the world. They have to take stock of the situation. They have to find the solution. They have to act. They have to heed what the bard said:

SITE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRY Dec 07, 1998
H-16, SITE, KARACHI, 75700