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)
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.
