Seminars on Social Problems

Child Labor, Bonded Labor, Labor Issues

Submitted by: Asifa Majeed

Submitted to: Dr Raazia Hassan Naqvi

Roll# 12

Semester# 2nd

Department Of Social Work

University of Punjab, LHR

Session (2017-2019)
Child:
The United Nations Convention on the rights of Child defines Child as a person below the age of
18, unless the laws of a particular country set the legal age for adulthood younger.(UNCRC,
1992)

Child Labor:

The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines child labor as ‘work that deprives children
of their childhood, their potential and dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental
development. It refers to the work that is mentally, physically, socially and morally dangerous
and harmful to the children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the
opportunity to attend the school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to
attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. (ILO, 2006).

Bonded Labor:

Bonded labor is a ‘forced’ labor is a form of slavery in which poor people are coerced and
scammed into a cyclic debt. They are then expected to work for an employer in harsh conditions
for long hours until debts are paid off. Institutionalized bonded labor creates an environment in
which most families continue accrue debt which they cannot pay within their lifetime, thus
passing their obligations onto their children.

Introduction:

Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. The international
labor organization estimates that 168 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently
working under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative.
Underage children work at all sort of jobs around the world, usually because they and their
families are extremely poor. Large number of children works in commercial agriculture, fishing,
manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities as drug
trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as soldiers.

Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:

 Violates a country’s minimum wage laws.

 Threatens children’s physical, social, mental and emotional well being.
 Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor
or illicit activities.
 Prohibit children from attending the school.
 Uses children to undermine the labor standards.

Historical background:

In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most
manufactured items. Factories began to spring up everywhere, first in England and then in the
United States. The factory owners found a new source of labor to run their machines — children.
Operating the power-driven machines did not require adult strength, and children could be hired
more cheaply than adults. By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major problem.

Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a
factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, to earn a dollar. Many children
began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads.
The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground, in coal
mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. They
often became ill.

Britain was the first to pass laws regulating child labor. From 1802 to 1878, a series of laws
gradually shortened the working hours, improved the conditions, and raised the age at which
children could work. Other European countries adopted similar laws.

According to Global estimates 2017, not all children performing work are child laborers as child
labor define by international standards’ as work that is hazardous , demands too many hours, or
is performed by children who are too young. (A History of Child Labour, 2014)

In 2015,UN member states committed to ending child labor by 2025.however, we see, the
current pace of progress is too slow to meet this ambitious target.(Global Estimates, 2017)

 Worldwide 218 million children between 5 and 17 years are in employment.

Among them, 152 million are victims of child labor; almost half of them, 73 million,
work in hazardous child labor.
  In absolute terms, almost half of child labor (72.1 million) is to be found in Africa; 62.1
million in the Asia and the Pacific; 10.7 million in the Americas; 1.2 million in the Arab
States and 5.5 million in Europe and Central Asia.

 In terms of prevalence, 1 in 5 children in Africa (19.6%) are in child labor, whilst

prevalence in other regions is between 3% and 7%: 2.9% in the Arab States (1 in 35
children); 4.1% in Europe and Central Asia (1 in 25); 5.3%in the Americas (1 in 19)
and 7.4% in Asia and the Pacific region (1 in 14).

 Almost half of all 152 million children victims of child labor are aged 5-11 years.
42 million (28%) are 12-14 years old; and 37 million (24%) are 15-17 years old.

 Hazardous child labour is most prevalent among the 15-17 years old. Nevertheless up to a
fourth of all hazardous child labour (19 million) is done by children less than 12 years
old.

 Among 152 million children in child labour, 88 million are boys and 64 million are girls.

 58% of all children in child labour and 62% of all children in hazardous work are boys.
Boys appear to face a greater risk of child labour than girls, but this may also be a
reflection of an under-reporting of girls’ work, particularly in domestic child labour.

 Child labour is concentrated primarily in agriculture (71%), which includes fishing,

forestry, livestock herding and aquaculture, and comprises both subsistence and
commercial farming; 17% in Services; and 12% in the Industrial sector, including
mining.

Situation in Pakistan:

According to a research report conducted in 1998 about examining the situation of child
labor in Pakistan and making comparison of child labor in rural and urban areas, about twenty
three percent children were rural workers whereas 10% children were at work in the urban areas.
In the report, it was also claimed that these laborers continued working without any proper rest
and better quality of food. They were working on low pay and they were exploited as well. The
condition of the children working in the carpet industry was even worse and vulnerable (Nation
census of Pakistan, 1998).

In 2013 ILO released that 168 million numbers of children involve in child labor which was 215
million in number globally.

According to Pakistan bureau of statistics Labor Force Survey 2012-2013 almost 4.4% children
involve in child labor. According to ILO the number of child laborers in Pakistan was 12
millions.

According to a survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, out of the estimated 40
million children in Pakistan, approximately 19 million are working as child laborers (Pak
Observer, 2017).

It is hard to estimate the nature, extent and magnitude of child labor because of countless
limitations on the collection of appropriate data about child labor in Pakistan.

Bonded Labor:

According to global Slavery Index 2013, about 30 million people around the world are victims of
some form of slavery including sex trafficking, debt bondage and forced labor. Pakistan ranks
third on the list of countries in which slavery is highly prevalent with over 2 million people
involving in some form of forced labor. The two main industries in which forced labor is
involved are agriculture and brick kilns although it can be noticed in the production units of
cotton, textiles, sugar cane, tobacco and stone crushing. (Global Slavery Index, 2016)

Although there are no exact facts and statistics about bonded labor in Pakistan, the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan made the latest estimations about bonded labor and the results

Showed that there were three to eight million children are bonded laborers. Majority of these
children were doing labor in brick kilns and agriculture sectors.

According to the statistics of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund,
there were almost 2.5 million (250,000) children working under bonded labor in Pakistan in the
brick kiln sector alone. Brick making is the oldest form of industries in the subcontinent and this
industry is mostly located in the remote rural areas (UNICEF). Large family size and over
population are two important determinants of child labor. In most of the developing countries
like Pakistan, many things are regulated and based on population.

Legislations in Pakistan:

Constitutional Provisions

• Article 3: the state shall ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation and the gradual
fulfillment of fundamental principle, from each according to his ability and to each according to
his work.
• Article 11(3): No child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or
any other hazardous employment.
• Article 25(A): The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age
of five to sixteen years in such manner as determined by law.
• Article 37(e): The state shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work,
ensuring that women and children are not employed in vacations unsuited to their age or sex, and
for maternity benefits for women in employment.

Article 11 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan guarantees that “no child below the
age of fourteen years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous
employment. Realizing the crucial role of education in eradication of child labor, Article 25-A
was added to the Constitution under the 18th Constitutional Amendment 2010, requiring the state
to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years.
Education is the one of the most effective means of controlling and combating child labor.
Similarly, Article 37(e) of the Constitution requires the State to make provision for securing just
and humane conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not employed in
vocations unsuited to their age or sex.

Employment of Children Act 1991

The minimum age for hazardous work is set as 14 years under the Employment of Children
Act 1991 (applicable currently in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Balochistan and Sindh).
After devolution, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh Province have enacted necessary
legislation raising the minimum age for hazardous work to 18 years, in line with the provisions
of Convention 138. The minimum age for hazardous certain hazardous occupations (lead, rubber,
sand blasting, chromium, etc.). The worst forms of child labor, as described work is raised to 18
years in the draft legislation for Islamabad Capital Territory and Balochistan. There are also
Hazardous Occupations Rules, framed under the Factories Act which prohibits employment of
children in under Convention 182, are regulated and prohibited under various Acts including
Pakistan Penal Code 1860 and Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance 2002.
The Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Act 2016 and Sindh Prohibition of
Employment of Children Act 2017 also prohibit worst forms of child labor, as specified under
Convention 182, and prescribes stringent penalties.

The Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Act 2016 and Sindh Prohibition of
Employment of Children Act 2017 also prohibit worst forms of child labor, as specified under
Convention 182, and prescribes stringent penalties. (Child Labor and Pakistan, 2018)

Legal provisions in Pakistan:

Pakistan made tremendous efforts for the eradication of child labor from the country in
2013 in the form of national plans action against bonded and child labor at provincial levels. The
Punjab Government re-established the district vigilance committees for the eradication of child
labor. The FIA also made steps to control human trafficking. The government made serious
efforts to cope with child labor and passed various acts against child labor at provincial level
especially the Government of Punjab but these laws were in effect in the other provinces. Punjab
and Federal laws differ with regard to the minimum working age and for hazardous work. So the
enforcement of laws remains weak and the labor inspections have become infrequent (United
States Department of Labor, 2013)

Theoretical perspective:
One of the major reasons child labor in a society is class difference. According to Karl Marx,
there are two main classes’ i.e. bourgeoisie and proletariat. The later is exploited because it has
no resources resultantly the children of this class has to do labor in order to fulfill the needs
of the family because of social inequality in the society. Labor theory and class conflict theory of
Marx is best suited. Since child labor is a burning issue of the present era.

Basu and Van (1998): show that the link between child labor and parental poverty can be
mutually reinforcing. They construct a model in which children can either work or enjoy
leisure. Parents value the latter and not the former. Child leisure is a “luxury” in that only
sufficiently rich households can afford to “buy” it. Child workers can substitute for adult
workers in the labor market, even though each child may be only fractionally as productive as
an adult. This substitutability implies that entry into the workforce by children leads to a
fall in wages for adults. This can be results in dual labor market outcomes. One outcome is a
“good” one in which children does not work. This allows adult wages to be high enough to
rationalize each household's purchase of child leisure. The other outcome is a “bad” one in
which all households send children to work. Under competition from child workers, adult
wages remain low. This reinforces the absence of child leisure. There are certain implications
of this theory. First, individual households have no control over which outcome occurs. Even
if individual parents were to withdraw their own children from work, this would raise market
wages only slightly; to move the wage sufficiently requires withdrawal of children by a
significant proportion of households. A second implication is that child labor is not uniquely
tied to an economy's level of development.
If we imagine that as an economy grows, so does the overall level of
wages, then it is possible that in a sufficiently advanced economy wages are so high
that, even under potential competition from children, adults would earn enough to
afford not having children work. In this case, a bad outcome cannot arise. At the other
extreme, in an extremely poor economy, adult wages would be low even without
competition from children; hence, a good equilibrium could not be sustained. In
between these two extremes, there may be economies that, for a given level of
development, are capable of producing either outcome. This implies that economic
growth may by itself not eliminate child labor in the short to medium run, at least not
in a predictable fashion.
Causes of Child Labor:

Child labor as a contribution to the family:

According to the theory of child labor as a contribution to the family, most children in
developing countries work because they want to support their families. As children often value
themselves as a part of the family unit, most children say that it is plausible to contribute to the
household, especially when the family survival depends on point.

Child labor as a means of self-actualization:

The principal argument of this theory is that many children would want to work even if they did
not have to. Even if poverty were non-existing and nowhere were children obliged to work, some
children still would like to take part in productive work. For the same reason as many middle-
class children seek part-time work in industrialized countries, the children in developing
countries want to work.

Child labor as a consequence of family-dynamics:

The third aspect of the theory stated by Boyden J, Ling B and Myers W is the explanation of
child labor as a result of inadequate family decision-making or relationships. The family
dynamics explanation often blames these moral judgments; child labor can be a consequence of a
breakdown in family values in which they do not fulfill their protective function.

Child labor as a result of poverty:

Child labor as a result of poverty is one of the most common theories about the causes behind
underage work. A majority of studies in developing countries show that poor families put their
children in child labor more often than families in a better economic situation. Increase of the
household income is one reason but it is also a safety strategy to even out the risk of losing
economic income, for example with the loss of an adult income earner or a failed harvest.
(Latif,A et al,2016)

Role of Social Worker:

  Conducting meetings and awareness campaigns about this issue especially in
underdeveloped areas can prove to be good measure in the elimination of this problem.

 Social workers should recommend different type of laws and their implementation
strategies to cope with this issue.

 As a social worker, he should suggest policy makers to make policies according to the
nature of problem within the context of Pakistan instead of coping other countries model.

 A social worker should identify the root causes of this issue and then become a liaison
between government and community people to eradicate this issue from society.

Recommendations:

 Provincial government should expedite legislations on child labor laws. These laws
should ban child labor in both formal and informal economic sectors.

 The government should ratify the Domestic Worker Convention.

 The government should enact legislation to grant domestic workers their rights and ban
domestic labor as one of the worst form of child labor.

 Specialized child labor inspectors should be hired and provide them necessary legal
provision and adequate resources to monitor the informal economic sector.

 Any new legislation on child labor should be in line with ILO Convention ratified by
Pakistan

 Minimum wage policy should be extended to informal sector to provide relief to poor
people who are forced to send their children to work.

 The relief camps for bonded laborers should be immediately recognized by the
government and basic amenities for life should be providing to the residents

References:
 UNICEF, Child Labor report. (2006). Retrieved from
https://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
 Pak observer,Child labor in Pakistan. (2017). Retrieved from https://pakobserver.net/child-
labour-pakistan/
 Child Labor. (2014). (M. Fried, Rev.). The New Book of Knowledge.
Retrieved May, 2018, from Grolier Online.
 International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) ‘Facts and Figures’.
International Labor Organization, ILO. Web. (2015).retrieved from
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm#a1
 Qamar ,K.H.,& Shoaib, M. (2017). Socio-economic factors leading towards child labour:A
Comparative kStudy in Punjab, Pakistan. ISSN 1930-2940, 17 (1).
 Zaidi , N. ,Javed , N. , & Khan ,S.M. (2013). Child labor in Pakistan- A tip of an iceberg, J
Postgrad Med Inst, 27(3), 285-9.
 Basu, K. and P.H.Van, (1998), the economics of child labor, American Economic
Review, 88, 412-427.
 Jafarey, S. & Lahiri, S. (2001). Child Labor. World Economics Journal, 2(1), pp.
69-93.
 Global slavery index (2013). Retrieved from
https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/country/pakistan/
 SPARC, (2015). Retrieve from http://www.sparcpk.org/2015/SOPC 2013/Child
%20Labor.pdf
 Global estimates of child labour: Results and trends. ( 2012-2016). International Labor Office
(ILO), Geneva. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labour/lang--
en/index.htm

 Nafees,A. , Khan, S.K, Fatmi ,Z. & Mubashir, A. (2014).Situation analysis of child labour in
Karachi, Pakistan,General of Paistan Medical Association.
 Latif,A. , Ali,S. , Awan,A. ,Kataria,J.R , (June,2016). Socio-economic and political
determinants of child labor at brick kilns: A case study of district Jhang , A Research Journal
of South Asian Studies , 31 (1), 161 – 174.