Child labour

 By: Maryam Obaidullah

No doubt that child labor is the indication of the fact that the state has stopped producing job opportunity for its citizens, its priorities are totally different from that of public service. And it will surely besmirch its reputation in front of the world. Almost child labor has trapped the most of the world with its exacerbating impacts. In addition to this, some collected data were uploaded on ILO (International Labour Organization) website which showed that 168 million children are involved in child labour.

In the same way, child labour is also rampant in Pakistan and increasing day by day. According to some reports more than 12.5 million children are involved in child labor while Pakistan’s Labour Force Survey, 2014 and 2015 showed that children between the ages of 10 and 14 years are active in child labour, among them 61 percent were boys and 88 percent came from rural areas.

On the other hand, Pakistan is a country whose 38.8 percent of the population is living below the poverty line, with one in four individuals living in extreme poverty. Moreover, it is almost very difficult to find a job in Pakistan easily. Likely, it is the reason that most of the families get compelled to send their underage innocent children to labour markets.

Really how doleful it would be to say that the future of the country is little by little being enrolled in work places instead of schools!

While due to the Covid-19 lockdowns Pakistan’s economic progress has been badly affected, because of which many companies and other income resources had to suffer heavy loses which resulted an unemployment escalation. As a result, numerous people became jobless and families were unable to afford the three times meals. Consequently, here again the naïve children were forced by their parents to join the labour army, depriving them of their rights and childhood!

Published in The Balochistan Point on December 17, 2020