Group Leader: Ayesha Shafiq (11)

Members: Iqra Batool (04)

Muntaha Imran (10)
Kashaf Amjad (20)
Yusra Rahim (33)
Fajar Akhtar (57)
WHY CHILDREN ARE FORCED TO DO LABOUR?
Introduction
The term “child labor” is often defined as work that is done by children which restricts or
damages their physical, emotional, intellectual, social, or spiritual growth as children, and denies
them their right to develop, play or go to school. It refers to work that is mentally, physically,
socially, or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes with their schooling by
depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, by requiring them to work excessive hours
and do heavy work.
Not all work done by children is considered as child labor. Children’s participation in
work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling
is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their
parents around the home, assisting in a family business, or earning pocket money outside school
hours and during school holidays.
International Labor Office (ILO) defines child labor as:
“Any activity other than study or play, paid or unpaid, that is carried out by a person
under the age of 15 (14 in certain countries).”
Child labor started in the seventieth and eightieth century. It was the time in which many
U.S children toiled in factories for 70 years a week until the child labor laws passed into force in
the 1900s. ILO has highlighted that child labor increased during 2004-2008. Child labor is a
historical phenomenon; (Horn, 1994) describes that child labor was started in the industrial ages,
it was the time when most of the children were used to do work in agriculture.
Unfortunately, the actual number of child laborers in Pakistan goes undetected. Children
are forced to work in completely unregulated conditions without adequate food, proper wages,
and rest. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics and the National
Child Labour, approximately 19 million children below 14 years of age are working as child
laborers in Pakistan.
Parents are often forced to sell their children to local factories, a practice commonly
referred to as bonded labor. Despite the problem of bonded labor, the Pakistani government
employs no programs to aid the impoverished and banks are unwilling to loan money to people
without collateral. Thus, when a family is in dire need of money, the head of the household is
forced to borrow from a local thekadar (an employer who owns a nearby factory). In return for
the loan, the borrower must give something of value as collateral. The collateral, oftentimes, is a
child. The child then works for the thekadar until the entire loan, including interest and expenses,
is paid back.
Many child workers are often abused where they work, suffering beatings or torture.
Many children are sent to live with middle class and elite class families to perform as domestic
servants. Jobs like these become particularly dangerous for children, as they are at the risk of
physical and sexual abuse without real supervision.
There are a few programs funded by the government to tackle child labor in Pakistan. For
instance, the Children Support Program gives parents money so that they can send their children
to school instead of encouraging them to join the workforce. This program is available to parents
of children ages 5 to 16. So far, the government has distributed $3 million to families.
Statement of the problem:
To study the causes of child labor in Lahore, focusing on the children working in the
local markets.
Purpose of the statement:
Child labor is increasing in all provinces of Pakistan. Pakistan is a developing country,
but this problem is continuously increasing. Maybe it is increasing due to lack of awareness in
this modern age, lack of education, and maintain the social traditions in the country. Parents are
not educated, that’s why they can’t understand the importance of education. Government of
Pakistan is taking initiatives to reduce child labor in the country and promote more and more
education but it still needs a lot of work to completely eradicate child labor.
Children are the little flowers and, they are the future of Pakistan. They don't know what
they are doing and what they should do, also their parent doesn't know about the importance of
children. They don't know that they are wasting the precious time of their lives. The children
who start working at an early age may destroy their learning abilities and ultimately their earning
capacities. As Psacharopoulos (1996) suggests, working children lose their educational
attainment abilities as compared to the non-working children of similar age groups.
Child labor is becoming the cause of mental, physical, moral, and social harm to the
children. They are working in different fields like industries, brick kilns, domestic servants,
automobile workshops, begging, working on workshops, and selling drugs. The most famous is
begging in Pakistan.
There must be banned child labor from all over the world. We should save the children
from this harmful disease.
Research questions:
Specific research questions are:
 Why child labor is increasing day by day in Pakistan?
 Is it due to poverty or due to social tradition?
 Is it due to lack of education or lack of awareness?
 What is the government of Pakistan doing to eliminate child labor?
Significance:
Child labor is a serious issue that must be eradicated. This economic and social issue is
important for many reasons. It deprives children of their childhood. Besides, it can adversely
affect their physical and mental development.
Our research proposal is significant because it will help us to examine the socio-
economic conditions of child labor working in the markets of Lahore. It will trace the factors
responsible for the children to undertake economic activity. It will find out the working and
living conditions of child labor in the selected occupations and identify the problems faced by
child labor. It will give an understanding of the impact of work on children’s health, the quality
of their lives, and their ability to produce effectively in jobs as adults, as well as increase
recognition of how child labor exploitation reinforces and promotes poverty, adult
unemployment, poor living standards, low literacy rates, and lax enforcement of labor
regulations. It will educate the public, businesses, and governments to broaden awareness and
understanding of the nature of child labor exploitation and how it differs from legitimate and
positive youth employment.
 Because children in child labor lag in the competition. In a country like Pakistan where it
is difficult to work, such as wondering children can be easy prey to the prevailing militant
groups. Not for this reason, but our first priority must be on the human rights group that all
children must be provided with good quality education and child labor must be abandoned. To
address this issue effectively it is important to understand its deep-rooted causes.
Literature Review:
Child labor is a common phenomenon in developing countries and a lot of research is
done on this issue to comprehend its causes and effects. Different researchers explored the
different dimensions of this issue. According to research conducted by Ray, Asia has a large
number of child domestic workers. These children work as childminders, maids, cooks, cleaners,
gardeners, and general house-helps. In Pakistan, child labor is also practiced at different levels
like other Asian countries. In research, Siddiqi & Patrinos found out that, in Pakistan, mostly
children engage in the informal sector, domestic work, or agricultural activities, and a minute
ratio of them is engaged in formal sectors (Siddiqi & Patrinos 1995).
Various factors are responsible for this evil. Maitra and Ray (2010) used data from three
countries Peru, Pakistan, and Ghana to examine at once child labor and child schooling. They
concluded that poverty is the major cause of child labor.
Besides poverty, many other factors are responsible for child labor. Karim (1995) did
research on the reasons which enforce parents to send their children to work. The results
confirmed that low income of family, less parental education, and huge family size are the major
drivers that force children to work. Malik, et al (2012) in their research gathered the data from
Multan & Sukkur in Pakistan. They also learned that poverty is a significant factor that usually
pushes the children to work, but the family income, father and mother education levels, influence
parents’ decision to send their children to work for their economic prosperity.
However, male children are not only the victim of child labor, statistics and researches
have shown that the female child is also involved in child labor in third world countries like
Pakistan. Ali and Hamid (2004) carried out a study on female child labor in the city of Multan
and illustrated the factors that are behind female child labor. They collected the data of sixty
girls, working as maidservants, babysitters, and doing other household tasks. The result depicts
that the intolerable economic circumstances of a family, huge family sizes, and low income of
parents, push girl children to work. Instead of sending their children to school, the parents send
their children to work as they have no other option of expanding income. Khalid and Shahnaz
(2004) also conducted similar research and worked with data of 547 child workers collected from
Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The survey consisted of children between the ages of 11-14 years.
They found out that the ratio of child labor is high in urban areas due to the lack of economic
resources. Poverty was the central principle behind youngsters' work especially in urban regions,
but other factors like father's salary, the capabilities of guardians, an absence of instructive open
doors for kids from poor families also contributed to propagating this evil.
Though there is a lot of work is done on this issue but still many perspectives of this issue
need to be explored. Internationally there has a comparative study on this issue; like comparative
study between continents (Pushkar & Ray, 2002), a comparative study between countries like
Pakistan and Ghana (Bhalotra, et al, 1997), Pakistan and Nepal (Ray, 2001) Cambodia, Vietnam,
India, and China, etc. Within Pakistan, there has been also a comparative work done but its scope
was narrow as it was conducted between two districts of Punjab (Pakpattan and Faisalabad) by
(Rana, 2003). Vásquez & Bohara in their research argued that due to poor economic resources
parents used their children to earn money for them to mitigate socioeconomic shocks (Vásquez
& Bohara, 2010). There is a research gap we find in research conducted in Pakistan that their
scope is narrow. The researchers should conduct a comparative study of child labor between the
different provinces of Pakistan and expand the scope of this research. They should also need to
find out the ways through which they can reduce and mitigate this evil from the world. They
should explore the ways which enhance the family income of the poor people so that every child
can enjoy his basic right of education and life.
Methodology:
The study will be qualitative.
I. Type of Research Design:
The study will be qualitative and use unstructured interviews to collect the data. The method of
the study is completely descriptive because it is based on a detailed investigation. Researcher
will interview the parents and children to get to know about their background and the
circumstances that made them put their kids into work with them. Also we will be inquiring if
those children are even studying in schools or not.
II. Population, Sample, and Participants:
The sample size will contain 50 participants. Data will be collected from the local markets of
Lahore mainly from Moon market and Ichra. Researcher will specifically target those children
who are getting in work along with their parents at very early ages. So it will be easy to gather
data of such children and their parents.
Limitations of the Study:
Child labor is a common problem in Pakistan for the last few years, and as we have discussed
especially in Lahore so some limitations are as follows:
 Since the research is based on the condition of street children in Lahore, this might not be
applied widely.
 The study is done via an interview with the parents of the children so they might not
provide accurate information.
 Since the study is conducted for the partial fulfillment of the Bachelor's degree and the
researcher is a student, time and money are the two major constraints of this study.
Because of these constraints, this study has deliberately not included some aspects of the
child labor problem.
 Because of the rising cases of Covid-19, the primary issue may face could be in the
collection of data from the markets. Using technology and online tools don't work with
the locals doing labour in such markets. They may not even have the slightest gadgets to
go with.
Ethical Issues:
 The rights of research participants will be respected
 Personal data will be kept confidential
 The researcher will respect the rights of the participants

REFERENCES
Faria, C. F. (2010). Why is child labor detrimental for children? Nurture, (9), 18.

Borgen, C. (2020, May 03). Child Labor in Pakistan.

Khan, R. E. A. (2008). Gender analysis of children's activities in Pakistan. The Pakistan

Development Review, 169-195.\

Siddiqi, F., & Patrinos, H. A. (1995). Child labor: Issues, causes, and interventions. Education

and Social Policy Department, Human Resources Development and Operations Policy, the

World Bank.

Maitra, P., & Ray, R. (2002). The joint estimation of child participation in schooling and

employment: comparative evidence from three continents. Oxford development studies, 30(1),

41-62.

NAVEED, J., & MOHYUDDIN, A. (2015). Importance of Child Labor for the Survival of the

Family.

Addison, T., Bhalotra, S., Coulter, F. and Heady, C. (1997) ‗Child Labor in Pakistan and Ghana:

a comparative study‖ Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, United Kingdom

Vásquez, W. F., & Bohara, A. K. (2010). Household shocks, child labor, and child schooling:

evidence from Guatemala. Latin American research review, 45(3), 165-186.