Being a citizen of a developing country I assume little investment in social sectors; poverty and large families are the main causes of child labor in the country.
According to me educating children about their rights as workers and providing opportunities for education and recreation, side by side with their work, is the feasible option.
To eliminate Child Labor we need to adopt certain measures for improving the working conditions, providing education facilities and for leisure time, providing soft loans to the families of the working children to gradually check step by step and eradicate the problem of child labor.
According to a report published in a local newspaper: The report, is based on socioeconomic data from 1,052 households from 46 villages in four union councils and one town committee in the south-eastern district of Tharparkar (district of Sindh Pakistan), covered 8,278 individuals of which 4,474 were men and 3,804 were women.
There were 2,766 children in the age group 5-14 years, of which 1,479 were boys and 1,287 were girls. Out of these children, 756 (which is more than 36 per cent) were working and detailed profiles of 631 working children were made. Out of these 631 children, 456 were boys and 175 were girls.
The average family size in the areas - Chhachhro, Islamakot, Nagarparkar, Diplo and Mithi - covered by the study - jointly conducted by the UK-based Save the Children Fund, Thardeep Rural Development Programme and Raasta Development Consultants - was found to be between 7.3 persons and 8.5 persons.
The study had also quoted figures from the 1981 census which stated that 35 per cent of the male children in the age group of 10-14 years were working, which meant that there were 10 million working children in 1981. The figures from the new census are still awaited. The study showed that nearly 12 per cent of the Thari children (in the age group of 5 and 14 years) worked as weavers in the carpet industry and 15 per cent as laborers on other types of work, and 34 per cent of the children worked as household help. There still were about 34 per cent of the children who did not work for remuneration.
Out of the 456 working boys, 193 (42 per cent) were in the carpet industry, but out of the 175 working girls 138 (79 per cent) were in the carpet industry. Livestock care, biri making and sharecropping farming were the other professions which employed child labor.
Of the children in carpet weaving, 18 per cent of the boys and 16 per cent of the girls were bonded. Contract, daily wages, and working without salary at home were more common types.
The carpet weaving workshops were generally one-room small huts with small ventilators which served as a passage both for sunlight as well as air. A single wooden bench supported by bricks underneath served as a seat for the loom and the children either sat or squatted on the floor or stood while working.
Children were expected to work from 8 in the morning up to 6 in the evening with a 30 to 60 minutes break for lunch and most of the boys and 65 per cent of the girls reported hand injuries due to carpet weaving. Only 11 per cent of the boys and nine per cent of the girls working in the carpet industry had ever been to a school.
The main sources of loans were shopkeepers (34 per cent), and moneylenders (24 per cent), followed by neighbors (12 per cent), landlords (11 per cent), and relatives (7 per cent). Only 5 per cent borrowed from contractors. The main reasons for borrowings was household expenditures, medicines, marriages, funerals and emergencies.
The report suggested that the economic sanctions and consumer boycott by the countries of the North would, in the end, hurt those who were most vulnerable and for whose benefit these sanctions were proposed.
Measures needed to eradicate child labor are:
To improve the conditions of the children. harsh
working conditions be mitigated; child workers, their
parents and employers be educated about their rights
and laws, gradual reduction in working hours, and the
older children be allowed to work but with limited
hours and with time for education and some leisure.
Children and their parents be convinced of the need for education and access to education be improved, educational incentives - like children can play and study along with work - be provided, younger children - up to the age of nine years - be removed and admitted to primary schools, micro credit be provided to the families so that they could break the cycle and shackle of debt with loan sharks and shopkeepers. Anomalies in laws regarding children be removed, working children be paid more so that they could earn more by working less, time for education and leisure be guaranteed by law.
The main aim of presenting this report (published in a newspaper) in this letter is to highlight the fact that people of my country are aware of the root cause of child labor and even know the guidelines to eliminate child labor since past 3 or 4 years or more many reports have been published many seminars and work shops have been held in this regard but no implementation has taken place in my country. Until now every thing is verbal or written (that is up to speeches and articles in newspapers ). No action has been taken place to eliminate this problem.
Sarah
The D.H.A
Degree College for Women
Karachi,
Pakistan