Children are involved in Agriculture and brick kiln in Pakistan

The most vulnerable segment of the society in Pakistan has always been women or child.

Islamabad: Children are involved in Agriculture and brick kiln in Pakistan . The worker in kiln sector work under dusty environment, they are always exposed to heat and smoke emanating from chimney. Heat causes them feeling of tiredness, weakness and stress while the inhaling smokes cause sight impairment, skin diseases, lungs diseases, Hepatitis and others.

Children affected Families
The most vulnerable segment of the society in Pakistan has always been women or child. The children are regarded as part of bonded family unit and work alongside their parents with only head of the family receiving remuneration. Human Rights Watch/ Asia estimate that brick kilns in Pakistan “operate almost exclusively on the basis of debt bondage”, and children are the most affected in this sector.

The education of children is being destroyed because of the poverty; the family can not met the expenditures of household so they prefer sending their children to work for income generation instead of sending them to schools.

The children of bonded labourers suffer all kinds of indignities and violations of their basic human rights; they are routinely threatened and subjected to physical and sexual violence.

Children engaged in practice
A large number of children and families in carpet weaving, bangle and brick kiln industry work under conditions of debt bondage. The exact number of children exploited in bonded labour is not known. It is difficult to collect data to indentify the number of children involved in bonded labour because no national or regional survey has been conducted by government or any non-governmental organization. SPARC conducted a survey for availability of education for bonded labour children indicates that most of the children involved in bonded labour are deprived of education despite introduction of Article 25-A in 18th constitutional amendment which gives the right to a free and compulsory education to all the children of age of 5 to 16 years.

According to a survey funded by ILO’s IPEC (International Program on Elimination of Child Labour; there are 3.3 Million children between ages of 5 to 14 engaged in child labour.

Working conditions of children

In Pakistan, children have been involved in agriculture as well as in industries such as brick kiln, bangle making, carpet weaving, sports industry, rice mills, stone cutting, quarries, painting, welding, auto mechanical shops, and deep sea fishing. They are working as street venders, are involved in begging, rag picking or domestic help. When children are to forego education in order to contribute to the economic survival of their parents, the poverty perpetuates. It culminates in hampering of the real economic growth and thus undermines the productivity and economic progress.

The children in Pakistan have remained unprotected for a number of reasons. Some of the workplaces are hazardous like brick kiln, rice mills, stone cutting, and deep sea fishing in which they are exposed to physical hardships. And potentially they are in danger of physically punished or sexually abused in bangle making quarries, welding, auto mechanical shops and domestic work place. The types of physical punishment given to children ranged from hitting with a stick, slapping and head stands to maintaining painful and humiliating postures.

Bonded Child Laborers in Pakistan are sold or forced to work in small-scale industries. Even if they are not sold by their parents or guardians, the salary is generally taken by their parents in advance. As a result, the child is then confined to the workplace until he/she is able to pay off the debt owed in advance.