CHILD LABOUR IN PAKISTAN

Child Labour in Pakistan

Abstract

There is a dearth of in-depth empirical and qualitative research about the children in domestic work in Pakistan. The children in domestic work are not recognized as 'child labour' by society and by a number of governments, but rather as a normal feature of society. The objective of this paper is to present diverse dimensions of this neglected segment inside the child labour phenomena. The purpose is not only to highlight the similarities and differences in dimensions such as labour market characteristics and its arrangements, working conditions, violence, exploitation from the all inclusive and parent “child labour” category, but furthermore to spell out testable hypothesis that can be the basis for future data collection and empirical analysis on the subject. Our premise is that the labour arrangements of child domestic worker in Pakistan are segmented along non-resident and resident. Thus working conditions, aggression, exploitation and dynamics of demand and supply alter with this widely discerned segmentation. Although legislations and activity plans on child labour in Pakistan, manage not include any clause specifically on child domestic work but the reality is that the vast most of children in domestic work would find a place in one or more of these categories, either because of the nature of the work they are required to perform, the treatment they receive or the means by which they entered into the situation in which they find themselves. Paper furthermore suggests some policy measures to decrease the incidence of child domestic work and for their rehabilitation.

Child Labour In Pakistan

Introduction

There is a dearth of in-depth empirical and qualitative research about the children in domestic work in Pakistan. Following are some of the reasons for the skeleton research: - First, nearly every child domestic worker is employed in an individual and/or dependent capacity in different households. As a group, child domestic labourers are invisible and difficult to come to and to count. Academically, they are furthermore implicitly subsumed in numerous child work studies. Secondly, job arrangements are informal and are made between the child's parents, or an intermediary, and the employer. Thirdly, most of these jobs are neither registered neither manage they pattern part of any system of official job registers, leading to underestimation in labour force statistics. Fourthly, the variation of domestic work adds to the information gap. Conditions of work and rates of payment vary not only from city to city but even inside a city and even the identical neighbourhood. Fifthly, the children in domestic work are not recognized as 'child labour' by society and by a number of governments, but rather as a normal feature of society. Thus, motivation to investigate into their situation is probable to be limited and, at times, there is reluctance even amidst child activists to take special notice of child domestic labourers (Basu, 1998, pp: 115).

The objective of this paper is to present various dimensions of this neglected segment within the child labour phenomena. The purpose is not only to highlight the ...