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Economic Exploitation and Child Labour laws

In a developing country like Pakistan where half the population lives below the line of poverty child labour is a deeply entrenched phenomenon which impacts heavily on children’s safety and well-being. Children may be put to work as early as age 7 and not only do child labourers work long hours and beyond their physical capacity but are often abused physically, sexually, mentally and emotionally. The only national child labour survey was conducted 23 years ago and since then no comprehensive information on child labour has been collected. According to the International Labour Organization 2012 an estimated 12 million child labourers existed in Pakistan in 2012.^[1]

Iqbal Masih, at the age of four, was sold into slavery at a carpet factory for the repayment of a debt his family took from a local employer.^[2] Iqbal's family had borrowed 600 rupees (less than 3 Pounds) and in return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off. He would work in chains with other children for 120 hours a week, seven days a week, with only a 30-minute break. He paid 10 rupees a day for the loan, but the loan continued to increase because of his family and interest.

Not only was he subjected to physical torture and beatings along with the other children but they were exposed to the overheated conditions inside the factories which lead to disease. Child weavers inhaling thousands of tiny wool fibres could get emphysema or tuberculosis and many also suffered from scabies and skin ulcers because of the “constant exposure to wool”. Long continuous work also made their hands ache with carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.^[3]

He worked there till the age of 10 for 14 hours every day till he ran away from the factory after hearing the Supreme Court had declared Bonded Labour illegal in 1990.^[4] He helped free 3000 child slaves and was shot dead at the age of 12.

Another extreme form labour where bonded child slaves end up working are in brick kilns where they work for long hours without precautionary measures in a dangerous environment. Under the Employment of Children Act 1991 child labour is illegal however, through history a blind eye has been turned to this. Data compiled by the labour department stated that there are a total of 6,090 brick kilns in Punjab and some 23,642 children under the age of 14 work at these kilns.

In 2016, the Prohibition of Child Labourers at Brick Kilns Ordinance was passed which propelled the Governments efforts towards eliminating by sealing kilns which employ child labour and implicating the owners and charging them with a non-bailable offence of 6 months imprisonment and a fine of Rupees 500,000 or both. In 2016, Secretary Labour gave a briefing about the steps taken for elimination of child labour from brick kilns. He stated that more than five thousand brick kilns were inspected, 207 sealed and 650 cases were registered on violation of child labour laws and 717 brick kilns owners had been arrested.^[5]

The Government has been seen to take these steps in relation to very hazardous situations such as the brick kilns or the trafficking of camel jockey children to the Gulf States.^[6] The Constitution of Pakistan highlights in Article 11 that no child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or any other hazardous employment. Also Article 25 lays down that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as determined by law. Again due to lack of resources the government is not able to do so.

Subsequent to the 18th Amendment, the subject matter on legislation pertaining to labour has been delegated to provinces.

 In 2016, Punjab Restriction of Children Ordinance 2016 was passed which banned employment of children and restricted the recruitment of children aged 15 to 18 for hazardous occupations. This ordinance protects children against any form of slavery, debt bondage, forced labour and serfdom. It also bans the using, procuring and offering of children for prostitution, pornography and the production and trafficking of drugs.

The Ordinance monitors the employment of adolescents by fixing working hours which shall not exceed 3 hours and if it does then the employer will at least provide 1 hour’s rest after 3 hours of work. The total time should not exceed 7 hour and adolescents are not allowed to work between 7pm and 8pm and are allowed weekly holidays.

Employing children, enslaving them or using them for immoral activities all carry imprisonment and fines and not only will the employer be punished but the guardian or parent shall equally be punished as well.

Over the years many Acts have been passed to curb child labour and to encourage education, however, the Government lacks infrastructure and enforcement of these laws. Furthermore, it is argued that not only by parents but by scholars as well that due to wide spread poverty child labour is the only way to survive extreme hunger and starvation.^[7] The other argument is that if child labour cannot be completely eradicated then it should be regulated however, it is not as easy or realistic as that in countries like Pakistan, where most child labourers belong in the informal economy or the agricultural sector which neither are governed by labour laws.^[8]

In the South Asian region it is estimated that the largest mode of employment for child labour is domestic labour.^[9] In Pakistan most child labourers live with the employer’s family and work without parental supervision and are beyond any state regulations.

Child domestic workers are the subjected to exploitation behind closed doors and are often exposed to cruel and inhumane working environments where they are the victims of physical and psychological forms of violence. Furthermore, they are economically exploited as well, usually they are paid less than the national minimum wage,  have wages delayed several months, have no defined working hours nor job descriptions , and furthermore, they may be prevented from leaving their employment to visit their families.

In extreme cases the abuse can be fatal. In 2010, a 15 year old domestic worker, Yasmin, was torched by her employers from which she suffered severe injuries and died five days later.^[10] In 2014, 10 year old Iram, a domestic worker, who was beaten to death with a plastic pipe to her death on the suspicion of her stealing.^[11]

In 2017, a local judge of a lower court and his wife were sentenced for torturing their 10 year old maid, Tayabba.^[12] Following that case the Lahore High Court ordered the Punjab Government to ban employment of children under the age of 15. The Punjab Domestic Workers Act 2018 consequently was enacted which binds everyone to address a servant as a domestic worker and has placed a fixed fine of Rupees 50,000 for employing a child under age 12. However, this also contravenes with section 3 of the Act which states that no child under the age of 15 shall be allowed to work in any capacity and the employer if found liable shall be with the imprisonment of a term that extends one month. Furthermore, the Act states that the domestic workers shall have all the rights and entitlements of ordinary workers and shall not be discriminated in recruitment, continuance of employment, deciding wages, religion, race, cast and creed. Also, no domestic worker will be assigned extra work without their consent and they are entitled to extra remuneration. The employers are also to provide dignified working conditions and health benefits, maternity benefits and medical care for the domestic workers as well as 8 days of sick paid leaves a year.

However, this Act does not address the punishment for the parents who put their child in domestic labour. Furthermore only 34% of Pakistani children are registered at birth (only 5% amongst the poorest)^[13] therefore, usually the parents do not provide any documentation nor any evidence of the child’s age and the employer takes the parents word and the parent’s ID card or document. Not only is it difficult to ascertain the age of the domestic worker but also there is no implementation mechanism for this Act and how domestic help will be regulated. Issues will only come to light when abuse manifests itself in the most extreme forms and where the parents of the child will want justice and not be bought nor harrassed. In the Tayyaba case, the family tried to take back the complaint against the affluent culprits twice.^[14] Research, have shown with the case of the child camel jockeys sent to the Gulf States that parents were made aware of the risks to the life and health of their child and they themselves played the middlemen and exploited the child’s position.^[15]

Issues of child protection when it comes to child labour are socio – economic in nature, without the state providing children shelter, food and education. How does it expect the children to provide for themselves when their parents refuse to do so? There are no laws nor mechanisms set by the state when the parent neglects their child. Studies have shown on the issue of child labour and bonded labour, that the repeated reality is that the parents had fully consented to offer their children to exploitative types of child labour, be it in form of child camel jockeys sent to the Gulf States exported by families to the affluent Gulf states to provide a few moments of thrill to their 'clients', the bonded children in the kilns, garbage collectors, flower sellers, helpers in vehicle repair workshops, domestic child labour etcetera^[16]

It has also been argued that the relationship between poverty and child labour are not that strong as indicated by Myron Weiner in his book ‘The Child and the State in India’.^[17] Weiner found that poverty was not the reason why child labour had not been eradicated in India, however, it was the elitist nature of the policy makers and the class based belief system of the state bureaucracy towards the relationship between the state and the children of the poor. Weiner argues that the children of the poor are denied education and therefore have little mobility to make their situation better.

This is supported by Lloyd’s and also Safdar who states that parents looked at children in terms of human capital which should reap immediate returns rather than investing and nurturing them for the future. In Pakistan’s context these arguments are equally applicable where majority of policy makers belong to the oligarchy or feudal politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists.^[18] Policy makers have little incentive to cater to the needs of the children of the poor as they provide cheap labour and it maintains the status quo. This reflects the feudal mind set which dominates decision making bodies including the National Parliament.

Another issue is not just access to education but also Pakistan’s continuance failure to provide quality education in public schools and universities is a major problem because the returns on publically provided education are not necessarily that high which would give incentive to the parents to put their children in school.

In conclusion to the issue of child labour is it can be argued that for governments it is not an issue that they really wish to address. The last National Survey on child Labour was in 1996. There have been major international economic fallouts due to international distaste of child labour practices. In 2014, Walt Disney, halted all forms of orders from Pakistan as a result of the inefficiencies towards policing under aged labour in the textile industry. Over a period of eight months the company persistently kept warning the government, which did not take timely action. The result caused an annual loss estimated to be of 500 million dollars.^[19]

Furthermore, changes in labour laws have been slow and reluctant. Propelled by the courts, the new legislation governing domestic workers just like the Protection Acts lacks enforceability and monitoring regulations. Also, the age limits in the different Acts, clearly show that child labour as a whole will not be banned for years to come. They are trying to regulate it but the socio-economic realities and poverty will not allow them to fully ban it. Moreover, lack of quality education and lack of schools both exist within Pakistan. For most parents, the child will actually give better returns if they work rather than obtain public education which does not necessarily increase the prospects for the child.  The ban on certain occupations for child labour is not necessarily for the child’s safety, wellbeing, education or providing for a work free childhood. However, it may be due to other factors and external pressures from consumers, exporters and the industry. Due to the clear exploitation of child labourers, Pakistan is not fulfilling its international duty to the UNCRC. Children being a lack of priority on the government’s agenda is immediately clear from the low financial allocation for child related matters. Resource allocation is ultimately the political will of the government. If it’s an area hey wish to work under than they will fund it.

It is still recommended that the government should, employ appropriate measures to eradicate child labour and firstly, need to start with collecting data and conducting a studies to assess the extent of the issue of child labour including bonded and forced labour while informing the committee about the findings in the next report. Furthermore, it should develop programs and techniques to identify and protect child victims of forced labour along with harmonizing the labour laws to indicate a minimum age for employment in accordance to the international standards while keeping a strict check on them. Lastly, every child should be given the opportunity to access education, health and public services.