Some dimensions of child labour in Pakistan.

Abstract

This paper reports on the prevalence of child labor among children 5-14 years of age in Pakistan. As reliable and comprehensive data on this age group are not available, the study was based on microdata of child labor in the 10-14 year age range from the latest Labor Force Surveys: 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93. The study shows that child labor in the 1014 age cohort increased to 2.0 million during 1992-93 from 1.8 million during 1990-91. The growth of the number of girl workers is higher than that of the number of boys. Gender differential in participation is more obvious in urban areas. In urban areas, the services sector played the major role by employing 52.14% of all children, followed by the manufacturing sector, which employed 38.08%. In occupational structure, a majority of the children were engaged in farm activities (64.70% of all boys and 66.68% of all girls), as against production activities (22.53% of all boys and 28.70% of all girls). In addition, a high number of children have been working as unpaid family helpers (63.22% of all boys and 65.41% of all girls); this practice is more prevalent in the rural population. Moreover, it was reported that about 70% of the children worked beyond normal working hours (35 hours/week). A majority of those children were from urban areas. This paper concludes by suggesting that in order to produce a clearer picture of the socioeconomic characteristics and hazardous work conditions of child labor, independent household and establishment surveys should be carried out.