Socio Economic Conditions of Child Labourers in Pakistan: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey

Abstract

Child labour has emerged as a serious, widespread and growing problem in many parts of the world. Asia has a large number of children employed as child labourers. Child Labour Survey 1996 reports that there are 3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Pakistan. Developed countries have linked trade with child labour through the Harkin Bill and the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Agreement (1994), which banned the market manufactured or mined goods produced in whole or in part by children under 15 years of age. Pakistan is also facing restrictions on some of its exports due to allegations of child labour. However, Pakistan has enacted the Employment of Children Act of 1991, which has banned employment of children below the age of 14 years.

Nexus between Child labor, Sector-specific Growth and International Trade in Pakistan

“…The urban population growth decrease the child labor and rural population growth as well the coefficients are statistically significant at 5% and 1% level of significance as indicated by Khalid and Shahnaz(2004). The FDI significantly decreased the child labor by 0.34 percent as in Kis-Katos(2011) and Voy(2014) insignificant role in decreasing the child labor growth the reason is that Pakistan is a developing economy and in such types of economies trade policies required long time for implementation as point out by Edmonds(2005aEdmonds( , 2005bEdmonds( , 2006 and Flanagan (2006) .…”

“…We consider household decision -making, itself, along with market characteristics that constrain the choices that families make concerning their children. Khalid and Shahnaz (2004) reported using child labor survey 1996 that there were 3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Pakistan. This study examined the socio economic conditions of child labor in Pakistan and to highlight differences between households with working children and those households without any child workers.…”

“…and Southeast Asia (like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore). According to Khalid and Shahnaz (2004) child labor in Pakistan is defined as work done by a person who is below the age of 14 years. A law passed in 1991 called Employment of Children Act it prohibits the hiring of any person under the age of 14 years.…”

“…If trade provides employment opportunities to parents, children do not have to worry about livelihood and concentrate on their education. Previous studies only discussed the impact of trade openness and GDP percapita on the child labor like Sidiqqqui and Patrinos (1995), Khalid and Shahnaz (2004), Chaudry et al(2005) and Rehman et al (2013). The present study discussed the impact of different sector growth, population growth and trade openness on the child labor.…”

Can an ethics code help to achieve equity in international research collaborations? Implementing the global code of conduct for research in resource-poor settings in India and Pakistan

“…Our evaluation of the GCC implementation in BiZiFED2 indicated some distinct challenges for members of the BiZiFED2 team. For instance, in Pakistan, as in many other Muslim countries, gender inequality is deeply embedded (Khalid, 2018). Most women, aside from a minority in urban areas, inhabit a male dominated society where they are excluded from decision-making (Bukhari et al, 2019).…”