Child Labor Laws
During the years 2001 and 2002, the government of Pakistan carried out a series of consultations of tripartite partners and stakeholders (Labour Department, trade unions, employers, and NGOs) in all the provinces. The objective was to identify the occupations and the categories of work, which may be considered as hazardous under the provisions of ILO Convention 182. As a result of these deliberations, a national consensus list of occupations and categories of work was identified, which is given below:
- Work inside underground mines over ground quarries, including blasting and assisting in blasting
- Work with power-driven cutting machinery like saws, shears, and guillotines, ( Thrashers, fodder cutting machines, also marbles
- Work with live electrical wires over 50V
- All operation related to leather tanning process e.g. soaking, dehairing, liming chrome tanning, deliming, pickling defleshing, and ink application
- Mixing or application of pesticides insecticide/fumigation.
- Sandblasting and other work involving exposure to free silica
- Work with exposure to ALL toxic, explosive, and carcinogenic chemicals e.g. asbestos, benzene, ammonia, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, caustic soda, phosphorus, benzidine dyes, isocyanides, carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulfide, epoxy, resins, formaldehyde, metal fumes, heavy metals like nickel, mercury chromium, lead, arsenic, beryllium, and fiberglass
- Work with exposure to cement dust (cement industry)
- Work with exposure to coal dust
- Manufacture and sale of fireworks explosives
- Work at the sites where Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) are filled in cylinders.
- Work on glass and metal furnaces
- Work in the clothing printing, dyeing, and finishing sections
- Work inside sewer pipelines, pits, storage tanks
- Stone crushing
- Lifting and carrying of heavyweight especially in the transport industry ( 15b kg and above)
- Work between 10 pm to 8 am ( Hotel Industry)
- Carpet weaving
- Working 2 meters above the floor
- All scavenging including hospital waste
- Tobacco process ( including Niswar) and Manufacturing
- Deep fishing (commercial fishing/ seafood and fish processing
- Sheep casing and wool industry
- Shipbreaking
- Surgical instrument manufacturing especially in vendors’ workshop
- Bangles glass, furnaces
- Read: Pride of Punjab Dulla Bhatti – The Robinhood of Indian Subcontinent
- NATIONAL STATISTICS
There are an estimated 10 million child laborers. (SPARC, The State of Child Labour in South Asia, December 1999, citing Government of Pakistan/UNICEF, Discover the Working Child)
For the year 2000, the ILO projects that there will be 2,993,000 economically active children, 1,158,000 girls, and 1,835,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 15.39% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office – Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997) 2,065,000 children between 10-14 years and 4,319,000 between 15-19 years are economically active. (ILO, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1999)
There are estimated to be 15 million child laborers in Pakistan. In areas such as Tharparkar, 60% to 70% of all children of 15-17 years work. 20% to 25% is normal in the cities. (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, The State of Human Rights in Pakistan in 1999, Lahore)
