In 1998, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 16.3 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 14 in Pakistan were working.¹²⁹⁶ According to a 1996 national child labor survey conducted by Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 8.1 percent (3.2 million) of children between the ages of 5 and 14 were economically active, with 46 percent of working children active beyond the standard 35-hour work week. Boys accounted for 73 percent (2.4 million) of working children in this age group, and girls accounted for 27 percent (0.8 million) of working children in the same age group.¹²⁹⁷ The survey further revealed that children in rural areas were eight times more likely to be economically active than those in urban areas.¹²⁹⁸ The 1997-98 national labor force survey found that 13 percent of children 10 to 14 years of age worked.¹²⁹⁹

Based on the 1996 national child labor survey, a majority (71 percent) of working children in Pakistan were involved in unskilled occupations.¹³⁰⁰ More than two-thirds of the working children (67 percent) are engaged in the agricultural sector, and about one in 10 (11 percent) worked in manufacturing. Overall, about 70 percent of working children are unpaid family helpers (75 percent in rural areas but under 33 percent in urban areas). Thirteen percent of the children worked 56 or more hours per week, and about 7 percent suffered from frequent illnesses or injuries.¹³⁰¹

Children in Pakistan are reportedly involved in many of the worst forms of child labor. Reports indicate that children are trafficked to the Middle East for purposes of sexual exploitation, bonded labor, and domestic service.¹³⁰² Young boys are kidnapped and trafficked to the Gulf States to work as camel jockeys.¹³⁰³ There are also reports that some children and their families suffer under a system of debt bondage in the brick kilns industry.¹³⁰⁴ Children engage in garbage scavenging and carpet weaving, and are used in the smuggling of contraband and drugs. However, there is little reliable evidence on the magnitude or extent of children’s involvement in these informal sector and/or illegal activities.¹³⁰⁵

A 1996 Punjab Labor Department child labor survey of the soccer ball and surgical instruments industries in Sialkot found that children accounted for 17 percent (7,000 working children) of all workers engaged in the area’s soccer ball manufacturing and 31 percent (7,700 working children) of all workers engaged in the manufacture of surgical instruments in Sialkot.¹³⁰⁶ A 1998 child labor area/sector survey by the same agency found that children accounted for 16 percent (2,740 working children) of workers in Sialkot’s brick manufacturing, 60 percent (5,221 working children) of those in Sialkot’s automobile workshops, 27 percent (123 working children) of workers in the Baghbanpura’s (an area of Lahore) steel furnaces and spare parts manufacturing, and 7 percent (167 working children) of those engaged in Kasur’s tanneries. In 1999, the Punjab Labor Department found 2,100 children working in Faisalabad’s textile power looms (5 percent of all workers) and 3,378 working children in automobile workshops in Lahore (18 percent of all workers).¹³⁰⁷

Recent primary school attendance rates are unavailable for Pakistan.¹³⁰⁸ While enrollment rates indicate a level of commitment to education, they do not always reflect a child’s participation in school.¹³⁰⁹ Over the decade of the 1990s, school enrollment increased for all grade levels in Pakistan, as did the percentage of females enrolling in school.¹³¹⁰ In the mid- 1990s, gross enrollment rates were 70 percent at the primary level, 47 percent at the middle level, and 42 percent at the upper level. They were higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and higher for males than females. Sizable differences between gross and net enrollment rates are indicative of late or postponed school entry and/or repeating a class level.¹³¹¹

There are significant differences between children’s participation in schooling in rural areas versus urban areas. The percentage of children from 5 to 19 years of age in rural areas that have never attended school (43 percent overall) was about double that for urban areas (21 percent overall).¹³¹² Similarly, rural dropout rates for children 15 to 19 years of age were more than double those for urban areas.¹³¹³ In general, rates for primary school completion were higher for males than for females and higher for urban areas than for rural areas.¹³¹⁴

In the mid-1990s, a substantial proportion (30 to 52 percent depending on their age) of 7- to 15-year-olds had fallen one school year behind what was considered normal for their age. The percentage of school dropouts increased after age 8. Also, about one-third of children ages 8 to 15 never attended school.¹³¹⁵

Generally, school costs rise substantially from the primary level to post-secondary education. Non-fee expenses, which include uniforms, books and supplies, transportation, and other related expenses, may be a factor that prevents some poor families from sending their children to school.¹³¹⁶

Many of Pakistan’s laws on child labor date back to British colonial times and, for the most part, prohibit the employment of children below a specified age in certain economic sectors (i.e., manufacturing, trade and services, transportation, mining, and marine shipping), but not in agriculture (except for tea plantations) or small shops and family-run enterprises in the informal sector. Child labor legislation introduced and implemented since independence has focused on prohibiting child labor in specified occupations and processes involving hazardous or dangerous operations.

For the purposes of most child labor legislation in Pakistan, a “child” is defined as a person under 14 years of age while “adolescents” are persons between 14 and 18 years of age.¹³¹⁷ The Employment of Children Act of 1991 prohibits the employment of children less than 14 years of age in certain specified occupations and processes that are dangerous or hazardous to the health of workers, but excludes children employed in family operations and government- recognized schools.¹³¹⁸ The act regulates the hours of work for children and adolescents to no more than seven hours of work per day and bans work after 7 p.m. and overtime work. Employers are required to maintain a register of child workers, and various safety provisions for children are stipulated. Penalties under the act include terms of imprisonment and fines, or both: up to one year and/or up to 20,000 rupees (US$327) for a person who employs a child in a prohibited occupation or process and up to one month and/or up to 10,000 rupees (US$164) for person failing to comply with child worker registration and notice posting requirements.¹³¹⁹ The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act of 1933 voids all agreements allowing the labor of children less than 15 years of age in any employment in return for any payment or benefits.¹³²⁰

Other laws restricting the employment of children include: The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan of 1973; The Tea Plantations Labor Ordinance of 1962; The Mines

Act of 1923; The Factories Act of 1934; West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance of 1969; Road Transport Workers Ordinance 1961; and the Merchant Shipping Act of 1923.¹³²¹

The Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act of 1992 abolished the bonded labor system and terminated all obligations of a bonded laborer to repay any bonded debt or any remaining part of an unsatisfied bonded debt and prohibited creditors from accepting any payment against any bonded debt. It also provided rules for enforcement by provincial governments, the establishment of Vigilance Committees to ensure enforcement, and the establishment of a fund for the rehabilitation and welfare of freed bonded laborers. Penalties under this act include fines and terms of imprisonment.¹³²²

While no law in Pakistan prohibits child prostitution on the grounds of child labor, prostitution is generally prohibited under the country’s criminal laws on a moral and social basis, with severe punishments for those convicted under the laws.¹³²³

Although basic legislation is in place to address many child labor issues, there are concerns about the implementation and enforcement. The Punjab Labor Department has found that the district-level Vigilance Committees, established under the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act of 1992 to advise the district administration on the law and to assist in the rehabilitation of freed bonded laborers, have not performed well.¹³²⁴

Some limited aggregated data on enforcement (number of inspections, prosecutions, and convictions and rupee amount of fines imposed) of child labor-related legislation have been published for Punjab Province. These data reflect an almost fivefold increase in inspections from 1998 to 1999. In 1999, almost 120,000 inspections were conducted, resulting in over 6,000 prosecutions and more than 3,000 convictions. The average fine imposed was 158 rupees (US$2.70).¹³²⁵

The Government of Pakistan ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor on October 11, 2001.¹³²⁶

Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) in 1994 that articulated the government’s political commitment against child labor.¹³²⁷ Pursuant to the MOU, Pakistan developed an action plan formalizing activities against child labor and seeking to coordinate efforts by the government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions, employers’ organizations, and other bodies. In March 1998, the government established a Task Force on Child Labour that was mandated to formulate policies and strategies for the elimination of child and bonded labor in Pakistan.¹³²⁸

In May 2000, the Federal Cabinet approved the National Policy and Action Plan to Combat Child Labour, which was developed after national consultations by the Task Force on Child Labour.¹³²⁹ The National Action Plan is based on an integrated approach at the federal, provincial, district, and local level, with short-term strategies of awareness raising, community mobilization, situational analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and withdrawal of children from exploitative child labor on a priority basis, with the immediate eradication of the worst forms of child labor. The long-term objectives include achievement of universal primary education, full implementation of the law, empowerment of families, poverty alleviation, capacity building of relevant Ministries/Departments and expansion of the social safety net.¹³³⁰ It also calls for immediate withdrawal and rehabilitation of children from hazardous and exploitative situations. The strategy notes that girls are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, and lists forced labor, including debt bondage, and work in illicit activities among the worst forms of child labor.¹³³¹

Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, a government welfare agency created in 1992,¹³³² since has opened a total of 33 centers throughout the country for the rehabilitation of former working children, each with an initial capacity of 60 children. The rehabilitation centers target children (aged 8 to 14) who have been exposed to hazardous and exploitative labor, providing them with training and stipends to children and their families. Students who graduate from the centers are guaranteed full assistance if they want to continue their higher education at any level within or outside the country.¹³³³

In addition to the National Policy and Action Plan to Combat Child Labour in Pakistan, NGOs and organized labor federations in Pakistan have adopted similar policies, strategies, and plans of action to address the issue of child labor in the country.¹³³⁴ In collaboration with Pakistani NGOs, ILO-IPEC has engaged in several major projects to remove and rehabilitate child workers in Pakistan from hazardous and exploitative work. A U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL)-funded ILO-IPEC project in the soccer ball industry of Sialkot removed over 6,000 children from stitching balls by placing them in educational centers, and through registered workplaces and community monitoring, the project has ensured that no new children are engaged in stitching.¹³³⁵ In Punjab province, another USDOL-funded ILO-IPEC project aims to provide 10,000 child carpet weavers and their younger siblings with educational opportunities.¹³³⁶ Efforts are also under way to address the issue of child/bonded labor and children working in the surgical instruments.¹³³⁷

Various surveys to determine the magnitude of child labor have been conducted in Pakistan. In 1996, the Federal Bureau of Statistics with support from ILO-IPEC conducted a national survey on child labor.¹³³⁸ In addition, surveys were conducted by the Government of the Punjab in 1998-99 which examined child labor in different enterprises and occupations within the province.¹³³⁹ To date, reliable statistics on the numbers of bonded child laborers have not been collected.¹³⁴⁰

Two of the four provinces of Pakistan currently have compulsory primary education laws in force. In December 1994, the Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1994. The act makes primary education (Classes I-V) compulsory throughout the province. In October 1996, the Government of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) passed the NWFP Compulsory Primary Education Act 1996, which introduced compulsory primary education in the province.¹³⁴¹

In its national strategy to combat child labor, the Government of Pakistan set a goal of 90 percent enrollment in primary schools by 2002-2003, and projected that compulsory primary education could be feasible by 2004-2005. The government’s policy also emphasized vocational training and technical education, as well as the creation of literacy programs for school dropouts and new programs targeted to working children.¹³⁴²

The percentage of the federal budget spend on education has been declining, from 1.2 percent in fiscal year 1995 to 1 percent in 1999. Expenditures on education at the provincial level were 26 percent of the total spending in 1995 and 29 percent in fiscal year 1999.¹³⁴³

The following bar chart presents selected government expenditures expressed as a percentage of GNP. The chart considers government expenditures on education, the military, health care, and debt service. Where figures are available, the portion of government spending on education that is specifically dedicated to primary education is also shown.¹³⁴⁴

While it is difficult to draw conclusions or discern clear correlations between areas of government expenditure as a percentage of GNP and the incidence of child labor in a country, this chart and the related tables presented in Appendix B (Tables 14 through 19) offer the reader a basis for considering the relative emphasis placed on each spending area by the governments in each of the 33 countries profiled in the report.

¹²⁹⁶ World Bank, World Development Indicators 2000 [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C., 2000 [hereinafter World Development Indicators 2000 ].

¹²⁹⁷ Government of Pakistan, Child Labour Survey 1996: Excerpt from Main Report, vol. 1, 1996, Summary Results and Tables at 3, 7 (www.statpak.gov.pk/Childlab2.doc) [hereinafter Child Labour Survey 1996].

¹²⁹⁸ Of the 3.3 million working children, 1.94 million worked in Punjab Province (8.6 percent of the province’s 5– 14-year-olds), 0.30 million in Sindh Province (3.5 percent), 1.06 million in the North West Frontier Province (15.8 percent), and 0.01 million in Balochistan (0.5 percent), Tables 7 and 8. The survey was conducted with assistance from the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC). See International Labor Organization, “IPEC in Action: Asia, ILO-IPEC Programme in Pakistan” at www.ilo.org/ public/english/standards/ipec/action/31asia/pakist98.htm; cited June 16, 2000 [hereinafter “IPEC in Action”]. See also Child Labour Survey 1996 at 4.

¹²⁹⁹ Labour Force Survey 1997-98 (Karachi: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Division, June 2000), Statistical Appendix Table 6 at 112. Children aged 10 to14 years accounted for about 18 percent of the nation’s total population, 2.4 percent of its total labor force, and 2.1 percent of all employed persons. Table 5, 97.

¹³⁰⁰ Child Labor Survey 1996 at 4. Elementary (unskilled) occupations includes sales and services; agricultural, fishery, and related laborers; and laborers in mining, construction, manufacturing, and transport. See S. M. Younus Jafri, “Nature and Extent of Child Labour in Pakistan,” paper presented at the seminar “Elimination and Rehabilitation of Child Labour Especially from the Exportable,” Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Lahore, Pakistan, January 5, 1996, 6 [hereinafter“Nature and Extent of Child Labour in Pakistan”].

¹³⁰¹ Most of the illnesses and injuries suffered by working children (71 percent) were in the agricultural sector, followed by mining, construction, manufacturing, and transport. See “Nature and Extent of Child Labour in Pakistan” at 6-9.

¹³⁰² Department of State, Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report (Washington, D.C., 2000), 92.

¹³⁰³ Ibid.

¹³⁰⁴ Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 150-71. The bonded labor system consists of an employer or creditor providing a cash advance or loan (called peshgi ) to a worker, with the workers’ labor being held as collateral for the loan. The worker (debtor) is obligated (bound) to work for his or her employer or creditor until the debt is completely paid. In some cases, the debts of bonded workers are “sold” by their employer or creditor to another employer, and the workers’ obligations are passed from one creditor to another. Children can also “inherit” debt from deceased parents. See also All Pakistan Federation of Labour (APFOL), Bonded Brick Kiln Workers: 1989 Supreme Court Judgement and After (Rawalpindi: APFOL, 1998) for more information on bonded labor in Pakistan.

¹³⁰⁵ Interview with Dr. Zafar Mueen Nasir, senior research economist, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, by U.S. Department of Labor official, July 24, 2000.

¹³⁰⁶ Activities for 1998: Surveys of Child Labour (www.dolpunjab.gov.pak/r4.htm); cited July 6, 2000. In 1996 the United States partially removed Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade benefits from Pakistan due to child labor concerns in three sectors: surgical instruments, sporting goods, and specific hand-knotted carpets; see Kantor Recommends Partial GSP Suspension of Pakistan , press release 96-21 (Washington, D.C.: Executive Office of the President, Office of the United States Trade Representative, March 7, 1996). Since the 1996 Punjab Labor Department survey was taken, significant efforts have been under way to reduce the incidence of child labor in the soccer ball industry (www.ustr.gov/releases/1996/03/96-21.html).

¹³⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹³⁰⁸ Between the years of 1990 and 1991, the gross primary attendance rate was 81.9 percent, and the net primary attendance rate was 47 percent. See USAID, GED 2000: Global Education Database [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C., 2000.

¹³⁰⁹ For a more detailed discussion on the relationship between education statistics and work, See Chapter 1, Introduction.

¹³¹⁰ Central Bureau of Education, Provincial Bureaus of Statistics, and Academy for Educational Planning and Management, in Pakistan Statistical Year Book 2000 (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Division, April 2000), 374, Table 14.3.

¹³¹¹ Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, Round 2: 1996-97 , second edition (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, September 1999), Tables 2.6, 2.7, 2.27, 2.28, 2.31, and 2.32 [hereinafter Pakistan Integrated Household Survey ].

¹³¹² Education Sector Performance in the 1990s: Analysis from the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, February 1998), Table 4.4, 27 [hereinafter Education Sector Performance in the 1990s ].

¹³¹³ Pakistan Integrated Household Survey at Table 2.17.

¹³¹⁴ Ibid. at Table 2.5.

¹³¹⁵ Education Sector Performance in the 1990s at 28-29.

¹³¹⁶ Pakistan Integrated Household Survey at Table 2.15, 16.

¹³¹⁷ Under section 19 of the Employment of Children Act 1991 (Act No. V), the definition of “child” in the Mines Act 1923, the Factories Act 1934, the West Pakistan Shops and Establishment Ordinance 1969, were “deemed to have been amended.” While generally raising the penalties for child labor violations under these acts and ordinances, an effect of the 1991 act was to lower the age of a child from 15 years to 14 years. See Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations , “Individual Observation: Pakistan, Convention No. 59, Minimum Age (Industry) (Revised), 1937” (Geneva: International Labour Conference, 1999), which is available on the Internet at: (http://natlex.ilo.org/scripts/laborlex.exe?&lang=E&docno=4493&chap=6).

¹³¹⁸ Prohibited occupations are related to railway transport, including work related to operations and servicing railway stations and premises, port authorities, and selling of fireworks. Processes prohibited for children are the making of bidis ; carpet-weaving; cement manufacture and bagging; cloth weaving, dyeing, and printing; manufacture of matches, explosives, and fireworks; mica-cutting and splitting; shellac manufacture; soap manufacture; tanning; wool-cleaning; building and construction industry; manufacture and packing of slate pencils; manufacture of products from agate; and manufacturing processes using toxic metals and substances such as lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides, or asbestos. The Employment of Children Act of 1991 (Act. No. V), Section 3, Schedules Part I – II, as cited in Child Labor: The Legal Aspects at 183-96.

¹³¹⁹ The Employment of Children Act of 1991 (Act. No. V), as cited in Anees Jillani, Child Labor: The Legal Aspects, vol. II (Islamabad: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, October 1997), 183-196.

¹³²⁰ The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act of 1933 (Act. No. II), as cited in Child Labor: The Legal Aspects at 180-82.

¹³²¹ The text of the laws are printed in Anees Jillani, Child Labor: The Legal Aspects, vol. 2 (Islamabad, Pakistan: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, October 1997) [hereinafter Child Labor: The Legal Aspects .]

¹³²² The Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act of 1992 (Act. No. III), as cited in Child Labor: The Legal Aspects at 167-79.

¹³²³ Child Labor: The Legal Aspects at 130.

¹³²⁴ “Performance of the Vigilance Committees,” Department of Labour, Government of the Punjab (www.dolpunjab.gov.pk/r10.htm); cited July 6, 2000.

¹³²⁵ Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Child Labour Unit, The Future: News Magazine on Child Labour , vol. 2, no. 8 / vol. 3, no. 9 (Islamabad, October 1999-May 2000), 32 and “International and National Laws Related to Child Labour,” Enforcement of Child Labour Related Legislations, 1996-April 1999, Labor Department, Government of Punjab (http://www.dolpunjab.gov.pk/r2.htm); cited July 6, 2000.

¹³²⁶ For a list of which countries profiled in Chapter 3 have ratified ILO Conventions No. 138 and No. 182, see Appendix C.

¹³²⁷ Initially, the Memorandum of Understanding was valid until the end of 1996, but it was extended until the end of 2001.

¹³²⁸ National Policy and Action Plan to Combat Child Labour (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Child Labour Unit, May 2000), 9 [hereinafter National Policy and Action Plan ].

¹³²⁹ Ibid. at 7, 11.

¹³³⁰ Ibid. at 11.

¹³³¹ Ibid. at 19-20.

¹³³² “IPEC in Action” (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/action/31asia/pakist98.htm); cited June 16, 2000.

¹³³³ National Policy and Action Plan at 45.

¹³³⁴ For a summary of these initiatives, see National Policy and Action Plan at 40-43.

¹³³⁵ “Elimination of Child Labour in the Soccer Ball Industry in Sialkot (Phase II),” (ILO-IPEC: Geneva, 2000), 7.

¹³³⁶ “Combating Child Labor in the Carpet Industry in Pakistan” (ILO-IPEC: Geneva, 1999), Section 3.

¹³³⁷ “IPEC in Action” (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/action/31asia/pakist98.htm).

¹³³⁸ Child Labour Survey 1996.

¹³³⁹ National Policy and Action Plan at 16.

¹³⁴⁰ International Labor Organization, International Labor Conference, 88 th Session, 2000, Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, General Report and Observations Concerning Particular Countries , Report III (Part 1A) (Geneva: International Labor Office, 2000), 113-14. Also available on the ILO’s ILOLEX database at http://natlex.ilo.org/scripts/laborlex.exe?&lang=E&docno=4997&chap=6.

¹³⁴¹ Anees Jillani and Zarina Jillani, Child Rights in Pakistan (Islamabad: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child/Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung, January 2000), 125-27. The West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance was enacted in 1962 but never came into force by proper ratification of the law. The Ordinance was replaced by the 1994 Compulsory Primary Education Act.

¹³⁴² National Policy and Action Plan at 18.

¹³⁴³ Federal data: Federal Government Budget Publication, as cited in Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan Statistical Year Book 2000 (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Division, April 2000), Table 11.2, 306-7; provincial data: Annual Budget Statements of the Provincial Governments, as cited in Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan Statistical Year Book 2000 (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Division, April 2000) Table 11.6, 316-317. In their book on child rights in Pakistan, Jillani and Jillani observe that the budget for education is both inadequate and misused, so that Pakistan compares poorly to other countries in the region and spends a disproportionate amount of its education funding on higher education at the expense of primary schooling. Anees Jillani and Zarina Jillani, Child Rights in Pakistan (Islamabad: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child/Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung, January 2000), 128-29.

¹³⁴⁴ See Chapter 1, Section C, 5, for a fuller discussion of the information presented in the box, and Appendix B for further discussion, and Tables 14 through 19 for figures on government expenditure over a range of years.