Pakistan International Peace & Human Rights Organization
Nindo Shaher District Badin Sindh Pakistan
BACKGROUND
Information on child labour in Pakistan is sketchy. For the last few years some case
studies on child labour focusing on certain geographic areas and industrial sectors have
been conducted. However, no comprehensive national picture of child labour in the
country exists. Without the availability of statistical data on the volume and nature of child
labour, it is extremely difficult to convince the public of the urgency of child labour as a
public issue and for the Government to formulate appropriate action programmes and
allocate the necessary resources for improving the situation and eventually solving the
various problems relating to working children. The lack of data on working children 5-14
years old even diverts attention from those categories of children who critically require
attention and assistance.
OBJECTIVES
To collect information on the dimensions of working children by age, sex, location,
occupation and industry
To collect information on the working conditions of the children, i.e. hours worked,
wages received and terms of employment as well as on the safety and health aspects
of their workplace; and
To collect data on the socio-economic characteristics of the children and their families.
SPECIFICALLT THE COMPLETE DATA SETS THAT HAVE BEEN GENERATED FROM THIS SURVEY MAY BE UTILIZED IN
Establishing targets and formulating and implementing intervention programmes;
Monitoring the effectiveness of policies, regulations and programmes aimed at the
eventual elimination of child labour;
Mobilizing support to generate public concern and interest on the issue of child
labour;
Formulation and/or amending legislations to protect the health and well-being of
children; and
Designing information materials directed at parents and children who are not aware of
hazardous conditions in their working environment.
CONCEPTS & DEFINATIONS
HOUSEHOLD
A household is a single person living alone or a group of persons who
normally live and eat together under common cooking arrangements and have no other
usual place of residence elsewhere.
HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
These include all such persons present or temporarily absent
whose usual place of residence falls in the selected household at the time of enumeration.
REFERENCE POLPULATION
In this survey, �child� refers to persons 5-14 years old.
REFERENCE PERIOD
Two reference periods were used � the last 12 months (for
measuring the usually active population) and the week preceding the interview (for
measuring the currently active population).
THE USUALLY ACTIVE POPULATION
The usually active population comprises all persons 5
years old and above who fulfil the requirements for inclusion among the employed or
unemployed during the reference period, i.e. one year preceding the date of the interview.
The definitions of �employed� and �unemployed� covered under the usual active
population approach are: the usually �employed� comprises all persons 5 years old and
above who worked during most of the weeks (or most of the days) of the year. The usually
�unemployed� comprises all persons 5 years old and above who were without work and
available for/seeking work during most of the weeks (or most of the days) of the year.
THE CURRENTLY ACTIVE POPULATION
The currently active population comprises all
persons 5 years old and above who fulfil the requirements for inclusion among �employed�
and �unemployed� during the short reference period, i.e. one week preceding the date of
the interview. Definitions of �employed� and �unemployed� covered under the currently
active population are: the �employed� comprises all persons 5 years old and above who
worked in economic activity for at least one hour during the reference period and were
either �paid employed� or �self employed�. The �unemployed� comprises all persons 5
years old and above who were without work during the reference period and who are
currently available for/seeking work.
CHILD POPULATION
As on 1 January 1996, there were 40 million children aged 5-14 years old in Pakistan.
They represent close to one-third (30 per cent) of the total population. More than 50 per
cent of the children are in the age group 5-9 years. Among children, males outnumbered
females with a sex ratio of 106 males per 100 females. In both age groups � 5-9 years and
10-14 years � males outnumbered females with a sex ratio of 107 and 105 respectively.
Rural areas have a relatively higher male/female sex ratio than
urban areas. The majority of the children, i.e. 28.7 million (72 per cent) are living in rural areas.
CHILD LABOUR PARTICIPATION
THERE ARE TWO APPROACHES WERE ADOPTED
The current status approach �The week preceding the interview
and
The usual status approach � the 12 months preceding the interview
Among the 40 million children aged 5-14 years, 3.3 million, i.e. 8.3 per cent, were
economically active during the reference week. During the 12-month reference period
almost 8.1 per cent of the 40 million children reported that their principal activity was
either working or being available for economic activity during most of the past 12 months.
The 12-month participation rate is lower than that of the reference week. This is due to a
number of reasons. The one-week reference period may have coincided with the peak of
agricultural activities, thereby incorporating slightly more youngsters who were working.
Secondly, the longer reference period of 12 months may have led to some memory lapses.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the definition of �usual activity approach� adopted for the
Child Labour Survey was limited only to �principal activity� during the 12-month period.
Thus, the children who might have combined an economic activity with their principal
non-economic work were not included in the count of economically active children. For
example, those attending school or those doing housekeeping work during most of the 12
months might also have been engaged in economic activity occasionally or on a part-time
basis during the year and especially during the agricultural seasons. Since all these are not
their main or principal activities, these children were excluded from the count of the
economically active.
VOLUME OF CHILD LABOUR
In Pakistan, child labour is about 3.3 million, out of which 2.4 million (73 per cent)
are boys and 0.9 million (27 per cent) are girls. The quantum of child labour increases with
age, i.e. the older the child, the higher the rate of participation in economic activity. The
volume of male child labour is about 2.1 million in age group 10-14 years, which is about
seven times greater than the level in age group 5-9 years (i.e. 0.3 million). Similarly, the
volume of female child labour in age group 10-14 years is about three times (i.e. 0.6
million) greater than in age group 5-9 years (i.e. 0.2 million) .
Male child labour outnumbered female child labour in both rural and urban areas. The
contribution of rural areas in child labour is about eight times higher than that of urban
areas. This may be due to unpaid farm activities performed by family members in the rural
areas.
The provincial distribution indicates that the volume of child labour in the Punjab is
about 1.9 million, which is about three-fifths (60 per cent) of total child labour in the
country. Next comes NWFP which shows about 1 million child labour. The lowest figure
is for Balochistan because of the lesser number of households reporting child labour.
OCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE
About 71 per cent of the 3.3 million employed children who worked during the
reference week were engaged in elementary (unskilled) occupations relating to agriculture,
sales and services, mining, construction, manufacturing and transport sectors where farm
activity dominates. Craft and related trade activities are the next major occupation group
which absorbed about 19 per cent of the working children.
Among male employed children elementary (unskilled) occupations are the most
prevalent. A great majority (68 per cent) of males worked in farms, sales and services.
Craft and related trade activities are ranked second and absorb about 19 per cent of male
working children. Similarly, in the case of female child workers, elementary (unskilled)
occupations absorb the higher proportion, i.e. 80 per cent, which is larger than the
proportion of boy workers in the same occupations. The next important occupational group
is craft and related trade workers which absorbs 19 per cent of total female workers.
INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE
The industrial distribution of children who worked during the reference week
indicates that about 67 per cent of employed children were engaged in the agricultural
sector. The manufacturing sector ranked second and employed about 11 per cent of
children. The next most important sector was wholesale and retail trade followed by
community, social and personal services which absorbed about 9 per cent and 8 per cent
respectively.
Among male workers, agriculture is again the most prevalent industry and it absorbed
about 63 per cent of male working children. Wholesale and retail trade is the second most
important sector absorbing about 12 per cent of employed children, followed by the
manufacturing sector (10 per cent), community, social and personal services (7 per cent)
and transport storage and communication (5 per cent).
Female workers have an even higher percentage in the agricultural sector (77 per
cent) than male workers. Manufacturing is the second most important sector absorbing
12 per cent of female workers followed by community, social and personal services (10 per
cent)
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
The data reveal that out of the total 3.3 million employed children, one-third (33.2 per
cent) are literate from the formal system of education. Male child labour is more educated
than female. About two in every five (40.3 per cent) of the total male child labour is prematric
while that of female child labour is approximately one in ten only (11.2 per cent).
Child labour in urban areas is more educated than in rural areas. In urban areas about
41 per cent of the total is pre-matric and in the rural areas it is only 32 per cent.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Employment status by broad categories indicates that about 70 per cent of working
children are working as unpaid family helpers, followed by employees (23 per cent) and
self-employed (7 per cent). Male and female unpaid working children account for 67 per
cent and 78 per cent respectively. Like the national pattern, the next major group is paid
employees, which represents 25 per cent and 17 per cent for male and female respectively.
Significant urban-rural differentials are observed in employment status. In rural areas,
three-fourths of children are working as unpaid family helpers while in urban centres it is
less than one-third. In urban areas, paid employees is the leading employment status and it
contributes about three-fifths of the total working children in urban areas. A similar pattern
is also observed for male and female working children separately.
NUMBERS OF HOURS WORKED
The distribution of working hours during the reference week indicates that close to
one-half (46 per cent) of children are working more than the normal working hours, i.e. 35
hours per week. A good proportion of children worked 56 hours or more at the national
level. In urban areas, 25 per cent worked 56 hours or more per week. The percentage of
male children working more than the normal working hours is 50 per cent, much higher
than that of females with 33 per cent. Similarly, 42 per cent of the total rural working
children worked more than the normal working hours and in urban areas it is 73 per cent.
The situation in urban centres in general, and for males (76 per cent) in particular, is worse.
ILLNESSES/INJUSTIES
Of the total working children, 7 per cent suffered from illnesses/injuries frequently,
28 per cent occasionally and 33 per cent rarely. Female children were less prone to injuries
than male children. The majority of the children in rural areas were more prone to
illnesses/injuries and this may be due to the hard labour associated with the agricultural
sector in rural areas (for details refer to table 10).
Most of the children (75 per cent) who received injuries were engaged in elementary
(unskilled) occupation, followed by craft and related trade works (16 per cent) and service
workers (9 per cent) (please refer to table 11). With respect to the industrial structure of
illnesses and injuries, the majority of children (71 per cent) fall into agricultural activities,
followed by manufacturing (9 per cent) and services (8 per cent).
REASONS FOR CHILD LABOUR
The most cogent reasons given by the parents/guardians for letting their child work
are: to assist in household enterprises (54 per cent), to supplement the household income
(27 per cent), and because no one else is available to do household chores (14 per cent).
WORKING CHILDREN BY HOUSEHOLD INCOME
The majority of working children (39 per cent) are members of households whose
income range is Rs.2,501-Rs.4,000; followed by 31 per cent in the income group Rs.1,501-
Rs.2,500; 21 per cent in the income group Rs.4,001 and above; and, the remaining 9 per
cent in the income group with less than Rs.1,500.
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PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL PEACE & HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION
P.O NINDO SHAHER DISTRICT BADIN SINDH PAKISTAN
POSTAL CODE NO:72250
PHONE NO:092-227-720227
[email protected] /
[email protected]
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