HYDERABAD: Society for Protection of Rights of Children (SPARC) observe World Day against Child Labor / The global theme this year was to promote Health and Safety at the workplace. In this regard, SPARC conducted some safety and protection-related sessions with the employed children of its centers and raised awareness about the importance of health and hygiene. Apart from that, SPARC also held a meeting with stakeholders of automobile, workshops, and other employers who have engaged children in work. The purpose was to guide them about the consequences of employment of children and how it can be hazardous for them. The children as young as 7 – 8 years old are involved in child labor and are subjected to long working hours, little rest, and vulnerability to physical, mental, and sexual torture.
Mr. Zahid Thebo Manager SPARC-Sindh, said that despite allocation of Funds and twice announcements of hiring the enumerators in newspapers Sindh Govt: failed to initiate the Child Labour Survey in Sindh yet.
He said , In Pakistan, no child labor survey has been conducted since 1996 and the last estimated statistics were 3.33 million child laborers in Pakistan. Pakistan has been ranked number 3 in the world in prevalence of slavery with the highest. (Global Slavery Index – 2013) Whereas based on the national Labor Force Survey 2010-2011, a publication titled Understanding Children’s Work (UCW) in South Asia by ILO, UNICEF and World Bank indicated that 5.7 million 10-17-year-olds, representing almost 20% of all children in the age group are involved in labor in Pakistan. In 2017, some efforts were initiated across the three provinces of Pakistan; Punjab, Sindh and KPK however the most substantial effort in this regard was taken by the Government of Punjab which completed the data collection tasks with the help of UNESCO.
As there has been widespread deprivation of rights of children engaged in domestic work, SPARC has called on the Government to ratify C189 – Domestic Workers Convention so we can have adequate laws for the regulation of not only child domestic labor but also domestic labor in general.
SPARC looks forward to the execution of child labor survey at the national level in Pakistan with an aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.7 of ending all forms of child labor by 2025 and target 8.8 of safe and secure working environments for all workers by 2030 as achieving these goals will benefit the next generations of the workforce.
On the occasion of World Day against Child Labour 2022 we demand from the Sindh Govt,
1. To initiate the Child Labour Survey along with the Survey of the Street Children in Sindh immediately.
2. To formulate the Rules of Businesses of all Children Related Laws , Like Sindh Prohibition of employment of Children Act 2017, Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act 2017 and other related laws.
3. To establish the Child Protection Units in all 29 district of Sindh.
4. To Implement The Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011. In its true sprit. 5. To initiate the Life Based Skill Education in all public and Private Schools in Sindh to aware and protect the Children from abuse and exploitation.
