Child Labour Assignment

 

Definition of Child Labour

Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was employed to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during the industrial revolution, and with the emergence of the concepts of workers' and children's rights.

What is child labour

Considerable differences exist between the many kinds of work children do. Some are difficult and demanding, others are more hazardous and even morally reprehensible. Children carry out a very wide range of tasks and activities when they work.

Child Labour Ratio in Pakistan

It is very difficult to make a precise estimate of the magnitude of child labour in Pakistan on account of numerous limitations basic being a lack of data. The last child labour survey conducted by the government was in 1996. According to the survey, 3.3 million of the 40 million children were found to be economically active on a full-time basis. Of the 3.3 million working children, 73 percent (2.4 million) were boys and 27 percent (0.9 million) were girls. Officially children made up about seven percent of the total work force according to the findings of the survey.

The provincial distribution indicated that the volume of child labour in the Punjab was about 1.9 million; three-fifths (60 percent) of total child labour in the country. The second on the list was NWFP, where about one million children were working. Sindh had a population of 298,000 child labourers. The lowest figure was for Balochistan, 14,000, because of the lesser number of households reporting child labour.

Province-wise Comparison of Child Labour
Province	Total No. of Children in age group of 5-14 years (millions)	Total No. of Economically Active Children in Age group of 5-14 years (millions)	Ratio of Child Labour
Punjab	22.63	1.94	8.6%
Sindh	8.62	0.30	3.5%
NWFP	6.71	1.06	15.8%
Balochistan	2.07	0.01	0.5%
Total	40.03	3.31	8.3%

It must be noted that government statistics omitted children those who were working in family and small businesses that are not registered with the government. These official figures were released more than ten years ago and had many loopholes. With approximately 23 million children of school-going age not attending school (SPARC 2009) and population growth nearly 2% annually, the actual number of child labourers will be higher than suggested official figures, and is expected to be over 10 million throughout the country. (HRCP/ SPARC).

Child Labour Ratio global

Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and Pakistan all scored 0.00 out of a possible 10, along with Chad, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe to form the 12  countries at the bottom of the ranking, whilst China scored 0.02 and ranked 13th.

Both India and China recently featured in damaging revelations for an international fashion chain, where suppliers used by the company were found to be employing children for less than the minimum wage; however, it is the rural sector where 70% of child labour is found. “These large emerging economies are essential to the strategic interests of multinational business as they constitute a primary source for raw materials and manufactured goods,” said Monique Bianchi, Principal Analyst at Maplecroft. “Not only is child labour wrong, but the existence of child labour within a company’s value chain can have significant impacts on reputation and profits and it is critical that companies undertake stringent monitoring of all suppliers.”

India, ranked joint 1st in the index, is crucial not only to the textile sector, but also to the mining, and ICT industries amongst others. According to the latest government figures, India is home to 14 to 16.4 million child workers. However, these estimates are widely disputed and the US State Department puts the figure closer to 55 million.  Child labour is most prominent in rural areas, particularly in the agricultural sector, including in hybrid seed production, where UNICEF estimates that private companies employ 200,000 children in Andhra Pradesh alone. Indian NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, also reported in 2009 that children as young as 6-8 years old were found to be working in mines in Jharkhand and Bihar, which were extracting mica for export to the global cosmetics industry.

China now features in the supply chains of most multinational companies and Maplecroft advises businesses to be aware that child labour is prevalent throughout the country. Although there are no official statistics on the use of child labour in China, as the government classifies such statistics as ‘state secrets’, it is thought there are between 10 and 20 million underage workers. According to Maplecroft, companies working with suppliers in the textile, electronics and manufacturing sectors are particularly vulnerable to the risk of complicity with labour rights violations.

Other emerging economies categorised as ‘extreme risk’ and of primary concern to business are: Indonesia (18), Egypt (29), Philippines (34), Iran (36), Viet Nam (38), Brazil (45) and Mexico (62).

Maplecroft’s research underlines the fact that the issue of child labour is often symptomatic of a range of underlying structural problems in a country, including poverty and a lack of access to education. This is seen most widely in Africa, where 31 countries are rated ‘extreme risk’ and children often work in farming, artisanal mining and in family enterprises. The ILO reports that 41% of the children in Africa are economically active with 30% of children between 10 and 14 working in agriculture.

Vulnerability to the impacts of climate change will also contribute to increasing rates of child labour, according to Maplecroft’s CEO, Professor Alyson Warhurst: “Drought and deforestation result in more work for children, as they must travel greater distances to gather water and fuel for farming purposes; whilst more frequent and severe climate related disasters will lead to raised levels of poverty, forcing children from education and into the workforce to support their families.”

Advantages of child labour

Well some say that If you close the child labour industries you would be harming what little economy is operating. Third world families have to make a living too. The problem is not children working in suitable occupations, it's child exploitation by going too far down this road.

Disadvantages of Child Labour?
The disadvantages of child labor is you are taking the short lived time out of child's life when they should be getting a good education and having fun with their peers.
In most countries (not third world countries) it's illegal. In third world countries many children do dangerous work and are worked for hours out of a day and are often abused if they are slow doing their work. They get paid little to nothing for all the hard work they do and are often sexually or verbally abused. What type of a life is that for a child!

Child Labour is Ethical or Not in Islam?

If you read the Quran about being good to orphans you will know the significance of treating kids with kindness in Islam.. So them working is non ethical but I guess they may be struggling so the poor kids have to work.. There is always a reason behind everything. it depends on the country, you got alot of the African countries kids work so they can get money and they live in poverty, same goes to India (or parts of India) kids working has nothing to do with religion but with what conditions you are living in.