Child labor introduction, causes, effects, interventions and ways to reduce child labor.

1. CHILD LABOUR
IT’S WRONG,IT’S CRUEL AND IT’S HAPPENING
“Life of Little
Ones Are
Destroyed,When
Child Labour is
Employed…”

2. Contents
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................4
History(Fried, 2014) .......................................................................................................................4
History and Impact of child labor in Pakistan (M., 2001) ....................................................................4
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR? (www.unicef.org/protection/index_3717.html, 2010) ................................5
STATISTICS (LWP, 2011)...................................................................................................................6
Causes of Child Labour (www.academicjournals.org/INGOJ, 2007) ........................................................7
Primary causes ...............................................................................................................................7
Poverty:......................................................................................................................................8
Lack of Education:.......................................................................................................................8
High cost of Education:................................................................................................................9
Parental Illiteracy:.......................................................................................................................9
Cultural Causes...............................................................................................................................9
Early Marriages:..........................................................................................................................9
Capital Movement:....................................................................................................................10
Bonded child labour: .................................................................................................................10
Low Aspiration by Family:..........................................................................................................10
Orphan-hood:...........................................................................................................................11
War And Civil Strife:...................................................................................................................11
Draught and Re settlement:.......................................................................................................11
Family Disintegration Due To Divorce:........................................................................................11
Sex Tourism:.............................................................................................................................11
Macroeconomic Causes:............................................................................................................11
Huge demandfor unskilled laborer’s: .........................................................................................12
EFFECTS OF Childlabour (Organization, 2015) ....................................................................................13
Health Effects...............................................................................................................................13
Physical health effects:..............................................................................................................13
Mental health efffects:..............................................................................................................13
Common Diseases.....................................................................................................................13
Begging........................................................................................................................................14
Illiteracy.......................................................................................................................................14

3. Social and economic effects of child labour ....................................................................................15
According to statistics of Pakistan:..............................................................................................15
The story of Jamila,who faced different difficulties as a Child Labour..............................................16
Interventions on Child Labour...........................................................................................................17
Interventions on Child Labourin South Asia; (Boateng, 2017) ..........................................................17
SAARC(South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation)............................................................17
Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL) –..............................................................................18
WAYS TO REDUCE CHILD LABOUR (Importantindia.com, 2017)............................................................19
LAWS...........................................................................................................................................19
Child Labor laws in Pakistan.......................................................................................................19
REDUCE POVERTY.........................................................................................................................20
Example of reduction of Child Labour from Pakistan....................................................................20
EDUCATION..................................................................................................................................21
Ethical Consumerism.....................................................................................................................21
Example: Canadians want to quit the child labour habit...............................................................21
Be alert, and ready to act ..............................................................................................................22
Donate to charities .......................................................................................................................22
Global trends in Child Labour (Google/images, n.d.)........................................................................23
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................23
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................................23
Figures
Figure 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Figure 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Figure 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Figure 4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
Figure 5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
Figure 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9
Figure 7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11
Figure 8----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11
Figure 9----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Figure 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14
Figure 11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17
Figure 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20
Figure 13 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21
Figure 14 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21

4. Figure 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------22
Figure 16 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------22
Tables
Table 1...............................................................................................................................................7
Table 2...............................................................................................................................................8
Table 3...............................................................................................................................................9
Table 4.............................................................................................................................................14
Table 5.............................................................................................................................................15
Table 7.............................................................................................................................................23

5. INTRODUCTION
History (Fried, 2014)
In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most
manufactured items. Factories began to spring up everywhere, first in England and then in the
United States. The factory owners found a new source of labor to run their machines — children.
Operating the power-driven machines did not require adult strength, and children could be hired
more cheaply than adults. By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major problem.
Figure 1
By 1810, about 2 million school-age children were working 50- to 70-hour weeks. Most came
from poor families. When parents could not support their children, they sometimes turned them
over to a mill or factory owner. One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire
"to keep the young imps inside." These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all
night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.
History and Impact of child labor in Pakistan (M., 2001)
Child labor has been prevalent in Pakistan in all the sectors of the economy, though it mostly
exists in informal sector of employment and in the home based industry. In late nineties, the
matter of child labor emerged as a serious consideration due to international exposure. In 1996,
Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto acknowledged the problem of child labor in the
0country and announced the plan to eliminate it. In his speech in April 1998, Prime Minister

6. Nawaz Sharif stated that the problem of child labor occupied a prominent place in the agenda of
government of Pakistan. In 1999, Federal minister for labor and manpower, Shaikh Rashid
announced a four point policy for curbing child labor in Pakistan. In Jan-99, government
announced the draft of the labor policy. The policy envisaged that the government is committed
to end child labor. It was also promised by the government of Pakistan in 2000, that the law to
eliminate child labor and bonded labor at an economic level would be implemented in 2002 and
till 2005; there would be no bonded labor or child labor in Pakistan. Even after so much
regulations and promises by the government of Pakistan, the attempt has not been successful till
now. Though the issue has received international attention and various organizations at
international level like ILO and UNICEF are participating in the issue, still the improvement in
this case is very slow.
Child labour is one of the most common problems in the world. Today Pakistan is facing a lot of
social problems like child labor, poverty, corruption, illiteracy, population growth, terrorism etc
which are destroying our society.
Figure 2
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR?
(www.unicef.org/protection/index_3717.html, 2010)
Any child under the age specified by law worldwide works full time, mentally or physically to
earn for own survival or adding to family income, that interrupts child's social development and
education is called "child labor".
“Child Labor" purely accounts when child is forced to work under slavery, poverty, parentless or
social or parent's boycott.
Child Labor is dangerous and unhealthy work done by children ages 4-15 in order to support
their families and provide themselves with basic household needs. This intends to be a common

7. thing in developing countries.
According to United Nations International Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF) there is
estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labor worldwide.
STATISTICS (LWP, 2011)
During the last year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics released the results of its survey. The
findings are given below:
Total Child Population: 40 million
Child Labor: 3.8 million (age group 5-14)
Age Group: 50% 5 to 9
50% 10 to 14
Agriculture Sector: 2.7 million out of 3.8 million
Others: Factories, Beggars etc
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
Begging
2% Dish Washing
13%
Cleaning
13%
Car Washing
22%
Shoes Polishing
37%
Selling&
wood
collection
13%
Child Labour is mostly found in
Figure 3

8. labourers. The lowest figure was for Balochistan, 14,000, because of the lesser number of
households reporting child labour.
Table 1
Province wise comparison of child labour
Province Total number of
children in age group
of 5-14 years
(millions)
Total number 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%
KPKP 6.71 1.06 15.8%
Baluchistan 2.07 0.01 0.5%
Total 40.03 3.31 8.3%
Causes of Child Labour
(www.academicjournals.org/INGOJ,
2007)
Child labour is caused by several factors. Some of them include
Primary Causes
International labour organisation (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single cause behind child
labour. For impoverished households, income from a child’s work is usually crucial for his or her
own survival or for that of the household. Income from working children, even if small, maybe
between 25 and 40% of the household income. Scholars such as Harsh and Edmond have also
reached the same conclusion.

9. Poverty:
Children who come from poor families may be forced
to work to support their siblings and parents or
supplement the household income when expenses are
more than the parents’ earnings. Even economic poverty
is a product of laziness! Having lost interest in doing
any meaningful job, they depend on their children to
provide for the whole families. Children are allowed to
work in the streets as hawkers, street beggars, bus
conductors or barrow pushers while their lazy parents
sit somewhere collecting the monies they make and
feeding fat on them. This again is wrong. It is a cultural practice that has been accepted by many
ethnic groups in Africa. Some go all the way accepting and identifying with this wrong way of
life, while a large proportion
do minimal jobs while the
children do the major works.
Many children are
blackmailed into these jobs
by parents who claim that
having brought the child into
the world and taken care of
him/her while an infant, it is
now time for the
growing child to repay
all the expenses and devotion the parents gave to him/her. It is a huge problem especially in
developing countries where parents are unable to generate income due to the lack of employment
opportunities or education. Children can be found employed in mines or hawking in the streets to
earn money that is used to provide basic necessities such as food and clothing for the family.
Children may also be employed in factories to generate income for the family instead of
attending school. Such a practice is a common phenomenon in poverty-stricken regions with
large factories set up by international companies.
Lack of Education:
Problems like:
 Distance from school
 Poor quality of education
 Overcrowding
 Inability to support schooling (food, uniforms, books, school fee etc.)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Rich Urban
Middle
Class
Lower
Middle
Class
Desperately
Poor
Number of people…
Figure 5
Figure 4
Table 2

10. High cost of Education:
Quality education is expensive. To many parents living in abject poverty, provision of food is the
priority because education is too expensive to afford especially when there are many children to
raise causing them to become unskilled labourers.
Parental Illiteracy:
A society with many educated people understands the importance of going to school and
pursuing dreams. Children have the ability and time
to become whatever they aspire to be. On the other
hand, illiteracy makes it difficult for many people to
understand the importance of education. Illiterate
people view education as a preserve of the privileged
in the society. They will therefore not provide
support to children so that they can go to school and
build solid foundations for future success. Illiterate
parents prioritize children contributing to the upkeep
of the family over going to school.
Cultural Causes
Certain cultural beliefs have rationalized child labour and thereby encouraged it.
 In cultures, where the tradition is that the children follow in their parents footsteps in a
particular trade, child labour then is a means to learn and practice that trade from a very
early age. Some cultures encourage children to develop working skills considering them
as assets to generate income in time of poverty. The perception is that it is good for
character building
 Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not
expected to need formal schooling and these girls are pushed into child labour such as
providing domestic services.
Early Marriages:
Marrying at an early age is a major contributing factor to
over population. Young parents are able to sire a lot of
children because they remain fertile for a long time.
Having many children with little or no resources to
support them leads to child labour. Older children are
forced to work in order to help their parents support the
family
Table 3
Figure 6

11. Capital Movement:
 Adults exploit children in order to make quick profits and to gain unfair advantage over
competitors. Children are paid lower wages and are unaware of workers’ rights.
 Employers often justify the use of children by claiming that a child’s small, nimble hands
are vital to the production of certain products such as hand knotted carpets and delicate
glass ware- although evidence for this is limited.
Bonded child labour:
There are many cases of child labour where a child has to work against the re payment of a lone
which was taken by his father who was unable to pay it off. Bonded child labour normally
happens in villages. Such children work like slaves in order to pay the lone taken. Not only poor
families, but some well-established business families also put their children into business at a
quite young age instead of making them complete their education. It is also known as the worst
form of child labour because parents may effectively sell their children in order to re pay debts or
secure a lone.
Low Aspiration by Family:
It is important for parents and children to understand that they can work hard and make
something great of themselves. Low aspirations by parents and children is a major cause of child
labour because in such a situation, being employed in a local factory, or selling grocery in the
streets is the normal way of life. To these types of children and parents, success only belongs to a
certain region or group of people. They do not aspire to become professionals in the society or
great entrepreneurs. It is a mindset that forms the very foundation of child labour. Children in
these families are made to feel guilty if they are not working like their so-called age group and
sometimes starved because they could not meet up with the parental targets. Many abusive
parents are victims of this culture in many towns of countries. They see their children not as who
they are but as what they want them to be–looking at them from the eyes of the public, seeing
them the way other mentally
poor parents see their children.
They want their children to help
make more money for the
families, they want to belong
where other families belong,
they want to do what other
families are doing and they want
to obtain what other families are
obtaining.

12. Orphan-hood:
Children who have no one to look after them can be an easy target for mobs who force children
into begging or any other forms of child labour.
War And Civil Strife:
Conditions after the war when many people have lost their lives and
children are left on their own, they may opt for ways that ensure their
living causing them to become child labourers.
Draught and Re settlement:
After an epidemic or draught has spread in an area people migrate from the area and inhabit
other areas with greater opportunities with food and living. This also encourages child labour.
But the issue arises when the people move back to their homeland after conditions become
favourable again. The drought land needs more attention of peasants and other skill requiring
labours for irrigation and resettlement. Thus, massive child force is employed to this effect.
Family Disintegration Due To Divorce:
Children belonging to broken families seek employment at an early age. This makes them feel
independent and self-sustaining. Thus, they fall a prey to child labour.
Sex Tourism:
The publicity given to the commercial, sexual exploitation of children in prostitution and
pornography forces them into child labour as sex workers.
Macroeconomic Causes:
Macroeconomic causes encourage widespread child labour across the world. The cause
suggested for child labour include both the demand and supply side. The growth of low-paying
informal economy rather than higher paying formal economy is amongst the causes of demand
side.
 Inflexible labour market
 Size of informal economy
 Inability of industries to scale up
 Lack of modern manufacturing
technologies
Are major macroeconomic factors affecting
demand and acceptability of child labour.
Figure 7
Figure 8

13. Huge demand for unskilled laborer’s:
The demand for unskilled labourers is another cause of child labour. Children are mostly
unskilled and provide a cheap source of labour, making them an attractive option for many
greedy employers. Child labour, by virtue of being cheap, increases the margin of profits for
such entrepreneurs whose only objective is profit maximization even if it comes at the expense
of ethics and good business practices. These types of employers can also force children to work
under unfavorable conditions through manipulation or blatant threats.

14. EFFECTS OF Child labour
(Organization, 2015)
With an insight into this deeply abominable practice, and the scarring effects it can have on
children and society as a whole.
There are some following effects of child labour.
Health Effects
 Physical health effects
 Mental health effects
Physical health effects:
Children who work often face serious health problems because of working
incessantly in perilous conditions. Often the employers do not care at all about
underage children who are almost always malnourished, and continue to work for
long hours
with little or
no respite.
Mental health efffects:
Their mental health also takes a beating owing to this severe form of exploitation. These
children often face severe mental trauma when they attain adulthood, owing to the constant
threats and ill-treatment they received toiling away as laborers.
Common Diseases
 Growth Deficiency.
 Physical Injuries.
Figure 9

15.  Sexually transmitted diseases.
 Exhaustion and malnutrition.
 Lung diseases.
 Insomnia.
 Aggression.
Begging
Children who cannot find work to feed large families resort to begging on the
streets, and in many cases, also fall prey to prostitution. At other times, they even turn
into thieves just to make a quick buck on which the family's survival depends.
Illiteracy
Illiteracy, hampering the overall economic growth of the country,
reflecting poor human development. It has also has a negative impact on the welfare of a
nation. Since these children do not receive any education, it increases.
Lack of education as children also
means that when they turn into adults,
finding jobs becomes tough since these
children do not possess the necessary
skills and training. This leads to a sharp
hike in unemployment.
Such children are always underpaid, and
that lowers the country's per capita
income, putting long- term economic
development in peril.
Figure 10
Table 4

16. Social and economic effects of child labour
According to international labor organization at least 250million children in the ages
between 5 and 14 work and about 120 million of them work full time .study on child
labor in non-agriculture sectors find that activities that children perform are mostly
unskilled and the children who entered younger in the labor relation earn less on
average than children who went to school. The availability of cheap and unskilled
child labor allows employers to avoid the investment in the new technologies and in
upgrading productive process therefore the child labor is directly connected with the
damping of technological progress, labor productivity and output growth in the long
run.
According to statistics of Pakistan:
Table 5

17. Loss of Quality Childhood: It is important for human beings to enjoy every stage of
their development. A child should play with friends and make memories for a lifetime.
The story of Jamila, who faced different difficulties as a Child
Labour
A short, thin girl with a soft face; her warm smile overwhelms the burdens she’s been
carrying since she was a toddler. She has a delicate, round face with radiant hazel eyes that,
you can’t help but notice, dream big.
 Jamila was four-years-old when her parents decided to send her away to the
city to her aunt.
 Here she was to learn household chores and babysit her one-year-old cousin. In
exchange of this, her parents received 500 rupees and a carton of oil each
month.
 The little girl who aspired to get an education now works as maid at a house
near Karachi's Azam basti, one of the most populated colonies of the country's
financial capital and where Jamila lives in a small house.
 She wanted to make something out of herself but has gradually accepted things
as they stand, a situation that befalls many unfortunate children in Pakistan.
She is, however, unaffected by the toil.
 “I just want my parents to love me,” Jamila says, and clearly it’s the only thing
she wants. She aspires to be a diligent, noble daughter and continues to help
her family earn a living.
 In a home, where the father and mother reap off the struggles and sacrifices of
their children who are barely adults, girls like Jamila, are entangled in the fear
of letting their families down.
 Round the clock she moves, pleasing her parents, pleasing her aunt, and taking
the responsibility of earning for her younger siblings when she can barely take
care of herself.
 Like Jamila, there are many other girls suffering the brunt of this pervasive
abuse. Her younger sisters will sadly likely be entrapped in the same cycle.
These kids are not only deprived of an education, circumstances force them to
mature very early. An entire childhood is lost.

18. Interventions on Child Labour
Many interventions are made across the globe to stop child labor .Some of them are
given below:
Interventions on Child Labour in South Asia; (Boateng, 2017)
SAARC (South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation)
SAARC was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8
December 1985. SAARC comprises of eight Member States: Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka .The Secretariat of
the Association was set up in Kathmandu, Nepal on 17 January 1987.
SAARC Commitments on Children include:
• The Rawalpindi (Ministerial) Resolution on Children of South Asia (1996).
• SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare
in
South Asia (2002)
• SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and
Children for
Prostitution (2002).
• The Colombo (Ministerial) Statement (2009)
• The SAARC Development Goals (SDGs).
• South to South Cooperation on Child Rights 2010.
SAARC organizes regional workshops and events to create a forum to discuss issues
including child labor. The second regional Child Labor Workshop was organized in
New Delhi by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, India, in collaboration with the
V.V. Geri National Labor
Institute and the ILO in
2013. SAARC also
organizes the South Asia
Labor Conference which last
took place in Lahore,
Pakistan in April 2014
(Khan & Lyon, 2015). There
is also a SAARC Technical
Committee on Women,
Youth and Children.
Figure 11

19. Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL) –
Global March (GMACL) is a grassroots movement built on constructive, cohesive and
coherent collaboration between child rights’ organizations, trade unions and teachers’
organizations. It is a long-standing partner of the ILO, particularly IPEC and other
organizations, including UNICEF. GMACL focuses on knowledge management, advocacy
and campaigns as primary mechanisms to highlight the importance of child labor elimination
as one of the central pillars for human development. The organization actively participates in
wide-ranging regional and global discussions related to child labor, Education For All (EFA)
and poverty alleviation, highlighting the inter-linkages between these development goals.
 Some of their ongoing campaigns include:
 Forging Civil Society Action Against Child Domestic Labor (CDL) To
Combat The Gender Disadvantage - GMACL (with the support of the
Commonwealth Foundation) is working together to strengthen the capacity and
knowledge of CSOs in Bangladesh and Pakistan to undertake advocacy efforts
in making policy and institutional linkages between trafficking and child labor,
domestic labor and associated Gender Based Violence (GBV) using India as a
case study. The expected outcomes are to give impetus to participatory
governance by the CSOs towards engagement with Local Education
Authorities (LEAs) including the judiciary, through legal intervention &
advocacy for the implementation of existing child’s rights legislations, policy
reforms and revisions particularly on child domestic labor, slavery and
associated GBV.18
 Strengthening The Worldwide Movement Against Child Labor Towards
Roadmap 2016 And Beyond 2015 – GMACL, with support from The Royal
Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, is providing support to increase
the participation of civil society, trade unions and governments, particularly
parliamentarians in guiding, contributing to and influencing national efforts for
ending the worst forms of child labor by 2016 and all forms by 2025. In
Bangladesh, Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum is leading the campaign
activities.
 Reducing Child Labor Through Youth Engagement and Empowerment and
Inculcating Democratic Values - With the support of the Robert Bosch
Foundation, GMACL aims to foster strong and organic grassroots civil society
structures by engaging and empowering young people and the community at
large, through the promotion of civic engagement and sustainable
development, and promoting democratic values for sustainable communities.
The campaign activities are being carried out across 20 villages and 7 hamlets
of Jharkhand, Karnataka and Rajasthan through Bachpan Bachao Andolan
(BBA), GMACL’s India Partner.

20. WAYS TO REDUCE CHILD LABOUR
(Importantindia.com, 2017)
LAWS
Bringing in laws that makes it illegal for children to work until they reach a certain age makes
it much easier to combat a culture of child labor. In addition, laws can be brought in that
ensure that when teenagers do begin to work, they are not allowed to work beyond a certain
maximum number of hours and they are paid a minimum wage. Such laws do not just provide
an explicit statement that child labor and child exploitation are wrong. They also provide a
framework and a set of prerogatives which mean that anyone who wants to challenge child
labor has the official backing of the government.
Child Labor laws in Pakistan
1. Part II, Chapter 1, Article 11 of the Constitution of Pakistan states:
"Slavery, forced labor, etc. prohibited
(1) Slavery is non-existent and forbidden and no law shall permit or facilitate its
introduction into Pakistan in any form.
(2)All forms of forced labor and traffic in human beings are prohibited.
(3)No child below the age of fourteen years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or
any other hazardous employment.
(4)Nothing in this Article shall be deemed to affect compulsory service:-(a)by any
person undergoing punishment for an offence against any law;
or(b)required by any law for public purpose provided that no compulsory service shall
be of a cruel nature or incompatible with human dignity."
2. Child Labor in International Labor Organization laws Article 138 of
the ILO convention defines child labor as work carried out by any child below 12
years of age. U.N.E.S.C.O. has come up with the following definition.
3. Work that burdens the child; too heavy for the child's age and capabilities, child work
unsupervised or supervised by an abusive adult. Very long hours of work, child has
limited or no time for school, child is forced by circumstances or by coercive
individuals to work. Limited or no positive rewards for the child. Child's work is
excluded from the legislation, social security and benefits. Binds the child to poverty
and misery, child's work is utilized for exploitative, subversive or clandestine
operations or disguised illegal activities. Child is subjected to psychological, verbal or
physical/sexual abuse."
4. Work which does not interfere with education is permitted after the age of 12.

21. REDUCE POVERTY
Poverty is a key reason for the existence of child labor. When a family lives in poverty, they
may very often end up sending their children out to work at a young age – even if everyone
else in the family is working as well, when wages are very low, additional child labor may be
needed to support the whole family. This situation is exacerbated if one or both parents is
absent, has fallen ill or has passed away. So, reducing poverty in communities helps to
support families and means that they do not need to send their children out to work.
Example of reduction of Child Labour from Pakistan
With intervention from the International Labour Organization, child labor in the football
industry in Sialkot, Pakistan, has reduced significantly since the late 1990s. An ILO survey in
1997 estimated that 7,000 children were working in football stitching, but according to Nasir
Mahmood Dogar, chief executive of the Independent Monitoring Association for Child
Labour, last year, only one child was found stitching footballs in a contractor's shop.
7000
5890
4321
2585
1375
577
10 0 0 00 0 0 0
1997 2000 2004 2007 2009 2014 2016
Reduction of Child Labour in
Sialkot Sports Industries,Pakistan
Number of children working in sports industries of Sialkot
Figure 12
Table 6

22. EDUCATION
Studies show time and time again that providing free and good quality education to all
children around the world helps to reduce the incidence of child labor. This is especially the
case if schools provide free meals and uniforms so that poor families do not have to go
without necessary things in order to send their children to school. Education widens children’s
perspectives and shows them that they have so many more options in life than simply to labor
at arduous, low paid jobs from childhood into old age.
Figure 13
Ethical Consumerism
By spending their money wisely or in advisedly, consumers can help to halt or can
(often inadvertently) support child labor. By investigating the companies that you
buy from and refusing to hand over your cash to companies that deploy child
labor, you can stop funding sweatshops and other unethical businesses that are
taking away the childhoods of young people across the globe. Do not be seduced
by the often cheaper prices that sweatshop made goods can be associated with:
these cheap prices come as a result of employing children, making adults work
excessively long hours, and sometimes even employing slave labor. Child labor
can also be involved in designer goods, too: many of the metals found in
expensive cellphones, for example, have been mined by children.
Example: Canadians want to quit the child labour habit
Canadians want choice:78% are frustrated at how difficult it is to determine how
the products they buy are made and by whom60% would stop buying a product and would switch
brands if they found out that it was made by children Canadians want change:89% of Canadians agree
that Canadian companies could reduce child labour by investigating supply sources87% of Canadians
agree that the Canadian government should require Canadian companies to report on who makes their
products and what they are doing to reduce child labour in their supply chains
Figure 14

23. The national Ipsos Reid poll was conducted on behalf of
World Vision, one of Canada’s largest international
development organizations .World Vision released its
Check the Chain report which makes the case for Canadian
companies, the Government of Canada and civil society
groups to work together on legislation that would require
large companies to publically report on what they are doing
to address child labour in their supply chains.
Canadians couldn’t agree more. With World Day to End
Child Labour just two days away, Canadian consumers are
extremely concerned that the products they use may
contain child labour and they overwhelmingly support
supply chain transparency legislation to empower them to
make informed choices about what they buy.
Be alert, and ready to act
Keep your eyes open and if you see any examples of child labor occurring do not be afraid to report
them. If you have spare time, you could also train to work on a helpline, giving advice and support to
children dealing with a variety of problems – including child labor. So many people just shut their
eyes to the issue of child labor, refusing to see
it when it is right in front of their face or
refusing to inquire as to where that brand new
laptop or that cheap new pair of pants came
from.
Donate to charities
Donate your money to charities that help children to escape the trap of child labor. Donate,
too, to charities that work to end poverty and lack of education more generally because these
are two factors that contribute especially heavily to conditions in which child labor can
flourish. Sometimes, we are too busy or simply not in the right place to dedicate ourselves to
the fight against child labor. Fortunately, there are dedicated charity workers out there who do
spend almost every day tackling this issue and our money can help them to keep up their good
work.
Figure 15
Figure 16

24. Global trends in Child Labour (Google/images, n.d.)
Conclusions
Child labor prevents children from enjoying a normal, healthy childhood and it can also
prevent children from getting the best education for them. Fortunately, there are many ways in
which we can act to stop child labor.
 These include buying wisely, donating to charity and writing to the government to
ensure that they pass and maintain laws that protect children from child labor.
 People who own their own companies are very well placed to ensure that they can
provide a space where child labor is not tolerated.
 We should all act to prevent child labor, starting right away.
Bibliography
Boateng,P.(2017). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/.../105-Interventions-on-Child-Labour-in-
Sout... Retrievedfromhttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/.../105-Interventions-on-
Child-Labour-in-Sout...
Table 6

25. Fried,M. (2014). The NewBookof Knowledge.InM.Fried, TheNew Bookof Knowledge.
Google/images.(n.d.).RetrievedfromGoogle/images.
Importantindia.com.(2017,january17). RetrievedfromSolutionstoStopChildLabor.
LWP. (2011). Statistics by LWP.
M., A. (2001). ChildLabour:A time to reflect. Child Labour:A time to reflect.
Organization,I.L.(2015). World Reporton Child Labour. RetrievedfromInternational Labour
Organization.
www.academicjournals.org/INGOJ.(2007).InternationalNGOJournal Vol.2(1). InternationalNGO
JournalVol.2(1).
www.unicef.org/protection/index_3717.html.(2010, August01). Retrievedfrom
www.unicef.org/protection/index_3717.html.