Child Labor In Pakistan

Introduction to labor laws in Pakistan:

Pakistan’s labor laws trace their origination from India’s legislation at the time of partition of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The laws have evolved through a continuous process of trial to meet the socio-economic conditions, state of industrial development, population and labor force explosion, growth of trade unions, level of literacy, Government’s commitment to development and social welfare. To meet the above named objectives, the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has introduced a number of labor policies, since its independence to mirror the shifts in governance from martial law to democratic governance.

Under the Constitution, labor is regarded as a ‘concurrent subject’, which means

Asia has a large number of children employed as child laborers. Child Labor Survey 1996 reports that there are 3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Pakistan.

The basic cause of child labor in developing countries like Pakistan is considered to be poverty; Described in the study of Mr.Irfan, Mr. Khan, Mr. Levy and Mr. Hussain which was conducted in 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1986 respectively. However, according to Mr. Ray in his study conducted in 1999 poverty alone is not responsible for the practice. A number of other factors also affect the supply of child labor in developing countries including Pakistan. Child labor contributes to further poverty by pushing down the wage rate in the labor market. Low wages, high cost of living and lack of adequate social security systems are the main causes of the prevalence of child labor. Rodgers and Standing (1981) have associated child work with the mode of production and the structure of the labor market. They found that in an economy where labor insensitive production techniques are used, child work would be

The “forced labor” has been defined in section 2 (c) of the Act with the name of ‘bonded labor’ which means any labor or service rendered under the bonded labor system.

According to the Act bonded labor system means any system of forced, or partly forced, labor under which a debtor enters with the creditor that in consideration of an advance (peshgi) or in pursuance of any customary or social obligation or for any other economic consideration he or any of his family members would render labor or service to the creditor (for the benefits of the creditor for any specified or unspecified period either without wages or for nominal wages). If it takes away from any person or any member of his family the freedom of employment, adopting other means of livelihood, the right to move freely from place to place, the right to appropriate or sell at market value any property or product or labor. This will also include the system of forced or partly forced labor under which a surety for debtor enters into an agreement with the creditor that in the event of the failure of the debtor he will repay the debt or he would render the bonded labor on behalf of the debtor.