Of the total child population, 8.06% are economically active, of these 11.53% are boys and 4.36% are girls. (ILO-IPEC, Combating Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation in the Mekong Sub-region, October 1998)
Of the 3.3 million working children, 73% are boys and 27% are girls. (ILO-IPEC, Programme in Pakistan, 1998) 18% of 10-14-year-olds are found working. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour: ILO in Asia and Pacific, 1997)
Now we can easily imagine in the light of the above-mentioned facts and figures how the nation’s future namely children are deprived of pleasures of life, ignorance has reduced their abilities to think right or differentiating between right and wrong, as well as their life-chances, to their non-access to education. It is true that child Labor is not an isolated phenomenon.
Causes of Child Labour
Child labor today is an outcome of a multitude of socio-economic factors and has its roots in poverty, lack of opportunities, high rate of population growth, unemployment, uneven distribution of wealth and resources, outdated social customs and norms, and a plethora of other factors. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the daily income of 65.5% of people of Pakistan is below 2 U.S. dollars a day. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, 47 million people in Pakistan are leading lines below the line of poverty, whereas the Social Policy Development Centre (SDPC) Karachi has stated in one of its reports that the ratio of poverty in Pakistan was 33% during 1999 that increased in 2001 and reached 38%. The ratio of poverty in the current year is around 30%.
