(Chairman: SITE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRY, SITE, KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Member Managing Committee: EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION OF PAKISTAN)

[Presented at the South Asian Sub-Regional Consultation on "Combating the trafficking in children and their exploitation in prostitution and other intolerable forms of Child Labor in Asia" in Kathmandu, Nepal, October 12-14, 1998]

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The exploitation of children is a cardinal sin of the worst kind where their privilege to be human beings are shamelessly violated, where their potential as human beings are flagrantly misused, and where their freedom to be human beings are blatantly shackled. The world community is now unanimous in its condemnation of the exploitation of children in whatever ways, especially the most intolerable forms of Child Labor.

There is now a universal agreement to immediately initiate pragmatic action plans and to introduce comprehensive programs to eliminate the most intolerable forms of Child Labor. These forms are servitude and slave-type practices and customs, forced or compulsory labor such as debt bondage or serfdom, moral corruption such as pornography, prostitution, and narcotics. They also include employment in any kind of tasks that are unsafe, detrimental, or dangerous for children or that which interfere with the educational and social needs.

The International Labor Organization has been in the forefront in dramatically reorienting the global approach to this issue. The comity of nations has joined ILO in targeting this matter and focussing their attention towards a sustainable program to eliminate and eradicate the proliferation of Child Labor. According to the revised estimates of ILO, there are 120 million active children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the world. It is also a fact that Child Labor is predominantly found in developing countries of the world, especially in Asia and Africa.

The three important factors instrumental in the widespread of Child Labor are (a) endemic poverty and galloping inflation, (b) lack of educational facilities and high cost of even rudimentary schooling, and (c) civil attitudes and emphasis on responsibilities and duties.

The magnitude of Child Labor is more prevalent in what is referred to as the unorganized sector or in the agriculture areas and the reasons for this are obvious. The primary objective of the parents of the working children is to ensure that the child brings in the daily bread and that it is also incumbent upon the child to grasp this notion. The traditional theory is that the child has to be proficient in the trade of the family and that the child should follow this craft, art, or profession. The implied notion is that the child is better off at work than on the streets where the child may tend to resort to vagrancy, or sports, or idling away the formative years in trivial pursuit.

The Action Plan for the Elimination of the Most Intolerable Forms of Child Labor should be expressed, formulated, and implemented in such a manner that its ramifications are not harmful to the welfare of the children and their families, and that it is an important part of a phased and multi-sectoral strategy. The Action Plan imperative to the attainment of the desired objectives must focus upon certain primary points.

The working children are at a susceptible phase in their development process and are easily exposed to the environment prevalent in the workplace. The area in which they perform the designated tasks should be identified on the basis of what is vital for children and should be conceptualized as hazardous keeping in mind the children’s development process. These concepts should take into consideration the physical, cognitive, emotional, moral, and social developments.

Children have been routinely employed in many industries and trades, and the work extracted from them has ranged from the normal type to utilizing them for hard jobs. The children have been subjected to strenuous tasks, something which should be the domain of adult workers or craftsmen. They have been involved in stitching soccer balls, in weaving delicate designs on carpets, in dyeing and tanning of leather, in making intricate patterns on bangles, in stuffing match boxes, in carrying heavy load of bricks at the kilns, in the manufacturing of locks, in the glass factories, and in so many other industries and trades. The working environment in these industries have devastated the lives of children and there are many documented cases of children suffering from all kinds of ailments, physical disabilities, psychological trauma, mental retardation, and sexual abuse.

In the carpet industries, the children are made to labor upto two shifts per day, all thru the week, in small damp rooms, where they "work-live-play". The children are forced to meet the targets and the deadlines, and those who make mistakes are severally beaten, deprived of food, and in many instances, openly tortured. Cases have been documented where the children have been chained to looms, hung on trees, and even branded with hot irons. Girl workers have been subjected to sexual abuse.

In the glass factories where bangles, test tubes, beakers, chandeliers, bulbs, etc are manufactured, the children have to work in an atmosphere that can be referred to as hell on earth. The furnace temperatures reach up to 1500 degrees Celsius in a workplace where there is minimum ventilation, where broken glasses are all around, where the air is full of soot and dust, and where there is molten glass scattered everywhere. In this atmosphere, the children work without protective gears such as shoes, gloves, goggles, or other safety features. The children working in glass factories have been known to intensely suffer from chronic asthma, bronchitis, eye problems, skin burns, and tuberculosis. Children routinely get glass splinters in their feet and cuts and bruises are normal daily occurrences.

Children are also employed in match factories where they are exposed to dangerous chemicals, such as chlorates, phosphorous, and sulphur, which they mix and then dip match tips into these chemicals. There are no protective measures available to the kids, even though there is a constant risk of fire and explosions. Children also are used for repetitive tasks such as filling these match boxes, stacking them for packaging, and pasting the labels.

There are numerous children working alongside their adult family members in the brick kilns spread all over the outskirts of the urban areas. These children mold bricks by hand, carry the bricks on their backs, and even load and unload the kilns. The children are victims of tuberculosis, chronic chest infections, and silicosis, mainly due to constant inhaling the fine quartz dust from the clay. Many children have been reported to suffer from eye deterioration and even blindness. The children work long hours in all kinds of weather, unprotected from the blazing sun or the cold winter winds.

The auto-workshop is another place where Child Labor is prevalent. Under-age boys working in environmentally miserable conditions while surviving on meager food handouts are exposed to severe health hazards and diseases, primarily cancer. These boys, or "Chottas" are always seen to be working very hard and with dedication, doing all the difficult tasks ordered by the workshop owner, with little regard for their health or safety. They are seen with mobile oil smeared all over them, as they get under the car and do extensive pre-repair work. They non-chalantly remove the mobile oil from their body by using gasoline. They are subject to the dangerous fumes from the cars, and they do not care about themselves when inhaling this pollution. According to a child specialist, the low body resistance and unhygienic conditions leave them prone to a long list of health problems, such as eczema, cough, typhoid, asthma, anemia, jaundice, tuberculosis, and cancer.

These children are also brutally beaten if they commit mistakes, and this is something that is quite common in a situation where there are "Chottas" in employment. Moreover, because of the nature of the work, these children should be given anti-tetanus immunization. However, when these children are not provided any protective wear like overalls and eye-screens, there is a remote chance of getting injected for tetanus as a precautionary measure.

The campaign for the elimination of Child Labor has led to a positive reduction in use of children in most of the organized industries. There is reliance on Child Labor in sub-contracting of carpets, apparel, and sports goods. Notwithstanding this premise, it is worth mentioning the pragmatic steps taken by the soccer ball manufacturers of Sialkot, Pakistan, who have initiated a Partner’s Agreement to eliminate in totality Child Labor in the manufacture of sports goods. This will be a trailblazer project that is bound to be emulated soon and used as a guideline to eliminate Child Labor from other industries and sectors.

There is then the need to address the contentious issue of keeping children away from workplaces that are not conducive to their safety and health, and that the topmost priority must be to plan activities to combat these types of Child Labor. Of course, these activities should also focus on all those children working under bonded or forced labor conditions.

In Pakistan, the carpet manufacturers in association with ILO and with the cooperation of recognized NGOs have embarked upon a comprehensive program to gradually eliminate the use of children even in family-operated cottage type ventures. The Training & Education of Carpet Weaving Children (TECC) project undertaken by the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PCMEA) and Bunyad Literacy Community Council (BLCC), a NGO, with the assistance of IPEC (ILO), is a case in point.

This project found that in two villages, every fifth or sixth house had a carpet loom installed and the family members involved in carpet weaving. The average age of the working child was 11 years and that 54% of the children had never gone to school. On an average, each child worked 48 to 50 hours every week and earned anywhere between 20 US cents to one US dollar. The average family income was about 50 US dollars a month. 73% of the children were not aware of the hazards of their profession and most of them did not take safety measures. Nearly all of them suffered finger-tip injuries and frequently complained of backaches, pain in the knees, cough, fever, and weak eyesight.

The objectives of the TECC program was:

• To establish and make operational a model center for carpet weaving children as a transitional measure to facilitate their removal from the industry.
• To create an awareness within the community of the developmental needs of the children and the value of education.
• To develop an intervention model for adoption by employers in other economic sectors.

The outcome of the project has been that the communities have been mobilized and actively involved in setting up of the center. Nearly 200 carpet weaving children attend non-formal classes and have acquired the basic skills of literacy. The setting up of two industrial centers has also been instrumental for providing skill development opportunities for the girls. The children take full advantage of the recreational facilities and also attended the workshops on health and safety issues. The various efforts of TECC have resulted in a considerable reduction in the working hours of children, but more importantly, the children have become literate and the families more motivated.

Child Labor has been acknowledged as a serious and challenging issue and its continued existence remains a source of consternation for all segments of society. Inspite of the threats of trade barriers, inspite of the call for moral understanding of the issue, and inspite of the active participation of government, employers, workers, NGOs, etc, the prevalence of Child Labor in the developing nations is one proof that practical dependence on working children still has an alarming ring in the world.

There is thus the need to create an awareness raising situation, especially against the most intolerable forms of Child Labor so that the process of elimination can gain momentum, and that the concern of the parents are alleviated in a pragmatic manner. It should be noted that the majority of parents defend themselves strongly against accusations of Child Labor and they take shelter behind the wall of poverty and deprivation. The onus is more dominant for non-governmental organizations, because it is easier for the parents to relate to them then to any governmental persuasion or inducement.

The ILO is in a more privileged position to disseminate the right information thru awareness programs managed by employers and workers organizations and thru certain bona fide and result-oriented NGOs. There is a need to set up broad-based focal points in areas where there is heavy concentration of Child Labor and where there is a possibility of parents favorable towards the rehabilitation of children or provision of alternative means of livelihood. The Employers’ Federation of Pakistan has been in the forefront in setting up a Network of Employers for Protection of Working Children, and thru this Cell it has conducted beneficial awareness-raising programs all over the country. There are worker-related organizations, such as Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research, that are leaders in conducting surveys, in counseling, and in disseminating information on Child Labor. The government has made efforts too, and there have been a few programs on the electronic media and official recognition of the Global March Against Child Labor in April 1998.

There is, however, a need for the enforcement of the various children-related laws and in this field, the government has not been efficient, effective, or successful. There have been a few cosmetic raids on industries where there was information on use of Child Labor. The inspection process has been a victim of endemic corruption and thus the employers, especially in the unorganized sector, have been relatively free from the enforcement of Child Labor laws. It is high time that the labor department, in association with human rights organizations and representatives of the employers’ organizations, chalk out a realistic strategy to combat the use of Child Labor by strictly enforcing the laws of the land. What is sorely required is a gradual process for the elimination of Child Labor and this should gather momentum and effectiveness. The enforcers of the law, especially in the inspectorates of the labor departments, need to be specifically trained so that they are at a vantage position to counsel the employers, and also able to suggest alternate ways and means to them to offset the effects of elimination of Child Labor.

The recent times have seen the introduction of trade incentives to counter the problem of Child Labor, especially in the developing economies. Four types of these trade incentives have become instruments of inducements.

• Labeling: This refers to the putting up of a distinctive label or mark on the product. It is more in use in the carpet industry, and in some cases in the apparel products. The idea behind this is to make the consumer aware of the issue and urging the consumer to only buy a labeled product. Rugmark is one such label that has become well-known in the carpet business.
• Codes of Conduct: The trend has been initiated by transnational corporations who require their overseas suppliers or even their own subsidiaries or branches in developing countries to adhere to certain codes of conduct. These normally relate to the basic rights of the employees, including of course, the discouragement of Child Labor in the manufacturing processes.
• Generalized System of Preferences: In the United States, this provides the overseas exporters with the privilege of special access to the American market if the exporters can prove that they respect the rights of employees, including the minimum age for appointment of workers. The European Union has about the same aims, and it contains provisions for ban on use of Child Labor into the workforce.
• Trade Restrictions: The use of trade barriers against the countries where Child Labor is employed has been heatedly debated at many world forums. This resort to "invisible barriers" to free trade has been a bone of contention between the western nations and the developing countries. The introduction of Child Labor Deterrence laws in United States, under which goods made by Child Labor will be denied entry, has been taken seriously and has resulted in a terrified rethinking by employers using Child Labor to manufacture exportable products.

The developing countries desiring the permanent elimination of Child Labor face a greater handicap. Their governments generally lack the political will to make the populace understand the full gravity of the situation. Moreover, these governments also suffer from perennial inadequacy of resources and technological capability to assume a positive, objective, and pragmatic posture. The task is made more onerous by the magnitude of the logistics and utilization of the mechanisms to effectively introduce solutions to the problem.

The developing countries are also faced with the resistance generated by tradition, culture, and the economic significance of Child Labor. These factors make elimination of Child Labor a frustrating endeavor. These, nevertheless, do not daunt those who have decided to bear the brunt of condemnation and criticism and carrying on with the process to effect change. They adhere to the belief that collective determination will eventually achieve the objectives, and this cooperative spirit will prove to be far superior than the attitudes and resistance of those who are at odds with the policy of elimination of Child Labor.

It is also incumbent upon the developed countries and international institutions and agencies to assist the developing countries in enforcing measures to eliminate Child Labor. This can be done by refraining from condemnatory postures and by adopting positions that are helpful to the developing countries and that these should be realistic approaches towards the complex problem of Child Labor. In the final countdown, the concern of the developed nations would not be immensely measured by the intensity of the rhetoric against Child Labor, but by the fact that the lives and minds of the children have been significantly improved for the better. This is one objective that should be the aim for both the developed world and the under-developed countries. This is the real message for the elimination of Child Labor from the map of the world.