Child Labour

 Children work because their survival depends on it, because adults take advantage of their vulnerability, and because national education systems are weak. Child labour is sometimes the result of ingrained customs and traditions. Childhood should be a time to grow, learn, play and flourish in safety. But, an estimated 10 million children around the world don’t have that chance. Instead, they wake up each day trapped in modern slavery.

Some have been forced into back-breaking work in mines, brick kilns, sweatshops and private homes. Others are forced into sexual exploitation, begging or selling drugs. And it happens closer than we would like to think– children in the UK are often just as vulnerable to trafficking or exploitation.

Starting of Child Labour:

The movement to regulate child labour began in Great Britain at the close of the 18th century, when the rapid development of large-scale manufacturing made possible the exploitation of young children in mining and industrial work.

Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives them of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.

Maya’s story

Maya grew up in a foster family in a typical British town. Aged just 12, she was groomed into sexual exploitation – trafficked all around the region and exploited, even while on a school trip. Her ordeal went undetected for seven years.

*Not her real name.

Globally, 152 million children aged 5 to 17 are in child labour. About half of them (72.5 million) perform hazardous work that places their health, safety or moral development at risk. With the right policy approaches and practical responses, the end is in sight. Here’s what we need to do:

Advance the legal commitment to ending child labour

Promote decent work for adults and young people of legal working age

Build and extend social protection systems, including floors, to help poor families

Expand access to free, quality public education as the logical alternative to child labour

Address child labour in supply chains

Protect children in situations of fragility and crises. More than 12.5 million children are involved in child labor in Pakistan. According to Reuters, “Pakistan's Labour Force Survey, 2014-15 showed that of those children aged between 10 and 14 years active in child labor, 61 percent were boys and 88 perc 

Child labour: 21.5 percent of children ages 5 to 14 are working. About 11 million children in Pakistan perform domestic tasks and work in agriculture. Other children work alongside their families as bonded laborers in the brick industry. The use of this type of forced child labor in Pakistan happens in the brick, carpet and coal industries.ent came from rural areas.”

types of child labour:

• Child labour in agriculture.
• Child labour and armed conflict.
• Commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• Child labour and domestic work.
• Migration and child labour. Resources on migration and child labour. » » Resources on migration and child labour [+]
• Mining and quarrying.
• Safe work for youth.
• Trafficking in children.
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 Child Labor Laws:

 Regardless of Pakistan’s introduction of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992, bonded labor still exists due to the country not having enough resources to enforce child labor laws. In 2018, labor law agencies have acted against child labor in Pakistan and are still working toward closing gaps that allow child labor to exist. According to the law, employers who use bonded labor risk punishment of imprisonment for a term of at least two years and a maximum of five years, or Pakistan still has the worst form of child labor which includes hazardous work that can damage children’s health and development, or worse, put their lives at risk. Children working in carpet factories sometimes work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and often sleep and eat at their place of work. Many children end up with eyesight and lung issues due to the ama fine of at least PKR 50,000 or both.

The Sex Trade:                                                                                                                               Due to the prevalence of poverty, approximately 90 percent of the 170,000 street children in Pakistan work in the sex trade, an extreme form of child labor. The federal government in Pakistan convicted its first child pornography case after passing the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act in 2018. Pakistan has also approved the Prevention of Smuggling Migrants Act 2018 in order to protect victims who traffickers have smuggled to other countries.

Minimum Age Standards:                                                                                                                                                  At a federal level, the minimum age for hazardous work in Pakistan still does not meet international standards. However, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh provinces meet the minimum age standards, above 18. Punjab Province also put a law into effect in early 2019 that bans domestic work for children under the age of 15.

 We aim to reach children as early as possible when conflict breaks out, and stay on to support them—long after the TV cameras have gone home. We understand children’s needs, respect their rights, and put them at the centre of everything we do. Whether it's helping Syrian children access education, rehabilitating ex-child soldiers in the Central African Republic or seeking justice for young people detained in Afghanistan.

We also work with children and young people to change systems and practices that affect them. We campaign on the root causes of conflict, and we demand that children are at the centre of all humanitarian responses.

Our vital, life-changing work covers four main areas:

1. Education

2. Protection

3. Livelihood 

4. Adovacy 

By working on this ,the rate of labour child would be decreases.

The principle of the effective abolition of child labour means ensuring that every girl and boy has the opportunity to develop physically and mentally to her or his full potential. Its aim is to stop all work by children that jeopardises their education and development.