The Child Labour Survey in 1996 conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics for the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, found 8.3% or 3.3 million of the 40 million children aged 5-14 years to be economically active practically on a full-time basis. These figures are considered to be under-estimated. (ILO-IPEC, Programme in Pakistan, 1998) 3,215,344 children are economically active, of which 2,374,830 are males, 840,514 are females. (ILO-IPEC, Combating Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation in the Mekong Sub-region, October 1998, citing Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics, Child Labour Survey, 1996)
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.
