PAKISTAN: Millions of Pakistani children have been forced into work by grinding poverty, a plight highlighted by the recent devastating collapse of a Lahore factory that killed a number of underage labourers.

Record ID: 172353

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Millions of Pakistani children have been forced into work by grinding poverty, a plight highlighted by the recent devastating collapse of a Lahore factory that killed a number of underage labourers.
  • Date: 10th February 2012
  • Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF A YOUNG BOY WINDING AN ELECTRIC MOTOR MECHANIC SLAPPING A BOY'S HEAD AS HE WORKS IN REPAIR SHOP VARIOUS OF BOY LAYING OUT DRILL BITS
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Business,Industry,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVAELM1HO2EF6M0OU3ESVR3IP5ZC
  • Story Text: The collapse of a factory in Lahore on Monday (February 6) that saw a number of child workers killed, highlighted the dangerous plight of Pakistan's poverty-stricken youngsters who have been forced into long days of hard labour, rather than attending school.
    Nabeel Mukhtar is one of millions of Pakistani children driven into labour by grinding poverty in a country where the unpopular government is seen as too corrupt and ineffective to care for its citizens, even the young and helpless.
    The 6-year-old works for nine hours a day, six days a week scrubbing motorbikes on a pavement in Lahore.
    "I want to study and become a doctor", said Mukhtar, who helps his family makemeet.
    Rising food and fuel prices and a struggling economy have forced many families to send their children in search of work rather to school.
    Frequent political crises in U.S. ally Pakistan means the South Asian nation's leaders are unlikely to end child labour, or a host of other problems from a Taliban insurgency to power cuts, any time soon.
    "From the bottom of my heart, I want my children to learn to read and write; to eat well and dress well. But we do not have the resources. We live in a rented house and can barely manage to pay the rent. We are poor people who work on a daily-wage basis. Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. We struggle to put food on our table, how can we send our children to school?", said Mukhtar's mother Shazia, who also has a 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.
    Her husband, Mohammed, a street barber, earns only 7,500 rupees ($83 U.S. dollars) a month, not enough to support the family. Their young son Nabeel brings in between 200 rupees ($4) to 400 rupees ($8) per month at his job cleaning motorbikes.
    While the government struggles with budget pressures and rising inflation, financial pressures have forced young Pakistanis, like 12-year-old Mohammed Naeem, to leave home in search of work.
    Naeem, the eldest of three orphans, ran away from his first boss because he could not take the verbal and physical abuse.
    But with sisters to feed, his new job, scraping rust all day at a mechanic shop for 25 rupees ($0.51), is still gruelling.
    "I am going to educate my sisters. I have not been able to study myself, but I want to help my sisters study. This is my wish: that I should be able to educate my sisters," he said.
    According to UNICEF, up to 10 million children are estimated to be working in Pakistan.
    The latest government figures, showing just three million child labourers, date back to 1996, underscoring how scant attention has been paid to documenting a problem which is likely to get worse for the fast-growing population.
    On Monday (February 6), the collapse of a three-storey factory in the city of Lahore after a gas explosion highlighted the dangers child labourers face.
    Eight-year-old Asad, a labourer in the veterinary medical product facility, said he was inside the building with another boy called Adil when the blast happened.
    "I went rolling on the ground. Adil ran off. I rolled and went down. The (rescue) team pulled me out. I kept calling Adil, but he did not come, He ran off in the other direction," Asad said.
    Adil's sobbing mother said crushing poverty had left her no choice but to send her young son to work.
    The plight of Pakistan's child labourers came under international scrutiny when it was discovered that children were hand-stitching soccer balls in the town of Sialkot.
    Foreign sports equipment companies are wary of any hint of association with child exploitation. One stopped orders in 2006 from a Pakistan-based supplier of hand-stitched soccer balls, saying the factory had failed to correct labour compliance violations.
    However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says the outcry has not helped very much because the whole industry has moved into private homes, which has made monitoring the use of child labour difficult.
    Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the social sector special assistant to the prime minister, says the government is not turning a blind eye to the problem.
    "I would not say that the government is doing enough, because I think still the problem is there, and we are not in a state of denial. As the Pakistan People's Party government, we are always very forthright and very candid to recognize that there is need to redouble efforts, to strengthen our efforts, to expand the scope of the efforts," Ali said, adding that about 45 percent of Pakistan's population of almost 180 million are below the age of 22.
    Critics say Pakistan's leaders are often too consumed by infighting, or tension with the military, to address child welfare.
    In recent months, Pakistan has been gripped by rumours of a possible military coup and the ongoing tussle between the Supreme Court and the government has been preoccupying the leadership.
    With little government protection, children keep falling into the same vicious circle of exploitation.
    Rights activists say the government needs to spend more on education to begin to solve the problem.
    Pakistan spends less than 2 percent of its gross domestic product on education, which translates into a lack of skills among the younger population, pushing them onto the streets in search of work.
    By comparison, just over 17 percent of 2011-12 state spending went to defence, though some experts put the figure higher at 26 percent.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register