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It is no secret that child labor exists on an extensive scale in Pakistan. This is despite the fact that Pakistan has signed and ratified, since December 1990, the CRC (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) which, under its Article 32, protects children from employment that is likely to be hazardous to their health, or to interfere with their education and development.
Child labor is sometimes justified due to the fact that it is confused with child work. The latter is distinguishable from the former in that young people indulging in child labor are exploited, overworked or deprived of their rights to health or education or just to childhood. The danger in defending child labor is that it gradually results in its societal acceptance.
Few in the world support child labor. Many, however, rationalize it on grounds such as poverty, under-development, unemployment, rapid population growth, agricultural commercialization, fast industrialization, landless peasantry and rural-urban migration. What they fail to appreciate is that child labor is also one of the major causes of the above grounds. There is thus an acute need to do everything possible to eliminate the possibility of employing children as an available option. Laws to prohibit, and regulate child labor are accordingly important. And then it is not enough to have laws on statute books. It is equally significant that these laws are strictly enforced and implemented.
Employment of under-14 Children
Article 11(3) of Pakistan’s Constitution prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment.
The terms “factory” and “mine” are not defined in the Constitution but are defined in the general Acts governing these establishments. However “hazardous employment” is not defined under any law in Pakistan. A “factory” is defined under the Factories Act 1934 as being “any premises, .. whereon ten or more workers are working,.. and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on.” The terms “manufacturing process” and “worker” are also defined. Thus if an establishment employs less than ten persons then it would not be considered a “factory” for purposes of this Act; and it could then employ children unless not covered by another law. The Mines Act 1923, however, has no such restriction.
The Shops & Establishments Ordinance 1969 prohibits employment of a below 14 year old child in any establishment. The term “establishment” is defined under this law to mean a shop, commercial establishment, industrial establishment, private dispensary, maternity home, hotel, restaurant, cinema, theater, circus, or other place of public entertainment. Other establishments could be added by the Provincial Government to this definition through notification in the official Gazette.
The Merchant Shipping Act 1923 states that no child below 14 years of age be engaged or carried to sea to work in any capacity in any ship registered in Pakistan; or in any foreign ship except in a school, or training ship; or in a ship in which all persons employed are members of one family; or in a home-trade ship of a burden not exceeding 300 tons; or where the child is employed on nominal wages and is in the charge of his father or other adult near male relative. Contravention is punishable with a fine of Rs 50.
Probably the only law in Pakistan that presently prohibits employment of children below the age of 18 years is the Road Transport Workers Ordinance 1961 which governs the conditions of employment of road transport workers. For employment of drivers, the minimum age is fixed at 21 years. Contravention is punishable, however, with only Rs 1,000 fine.
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