Child Labour

Millions of children around the globe are trapped in child labour. Worldwide 218 million children between 5 and 17 years are in employment.

Among them, 152 million are victims of child labour; almost half of them, 73 million, work in hazardous child labour.
In which 12.5 million children in Pakistan are involved in
Child labour.

12 June was declared ‘World Day Against Child Labour. According to the statement issued by the Child Rights Movement (CRM) National Secretariat. There are 8.52 million home-based workers in the country which requires immediate action by the federal and provincial governments.

The statement claims that a large portion of these children are employed through an informal economy in the street, in private structures or in their homes, which also deprives them of any form of safety and recognition.
CRM has also urged the government to increase budget allocations for education so that quality education is available to all children in Pakistan and to enact the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, which is still pending in the National Assembly so that child right violations linked with child labour can be monitored and addressed.
Child labour is preventable, not inevitable. UNICEF believes that effective action against child labour requires children to be placed squarely at the centre of programmes designed to protect children’s rights. Looking at child labour through a broader lens – addressing the full range of children’s vulnerabilities and protection challenges – comes as a result of the recognition that these wider concerns are not always fully addressed in action against 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.