A report launched by the National Commission for Human Rights and UNICEF — the country’s first nationally representative child-labour dataset in nearly 30 years — maps the scale and drivers, with Punjab bearing the heaviest burden and poverty the strongest cause.
More than 8.6 million children in Pakistan are engaged in child labour, including over 6.6 million in hazardous work that threatens their health, safety and development, according to a national report launched on Friday, June 19, by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) in collaboration with UNICEF, The Express Tribune and Prokerala reported. Titled “Pakistan: Child Labour Surveys, Evidence for Action,” it is described as the country’s first nationally representative child-labour dataset in nearly three decades.
The burden is heavily concentrated in the most populous province. Punjab accounts for around 6 million working children, followed by Sindh with 1.6 million, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 745,155, Balochistan with 201,352 and the Islamabad Capital Territory with 15,180, according to figures from the report carried by The Express Tribune.
The survey also documents the toll the work takes. Between 32 and 58 per cent of working children across the provinces reported work-related injuries or illnesses, and up to one-third of older children engaged in labour reported symptoms of depression, The Express Tribune reported.
Poverty emerged as the strongest driver, with children from the poorest households and those whose parents had low levels of education the most vulnerable, and boys more likely to be involved than girls, according to The Express Tribune and Prokerala.
Federal Minister for Human Rights Azam Nazeer Tarar said the problem was bigger than any one department could solve, stating that “the challenge could not be addressed by a single ministry or intervention” and that child labour was “far more widespread than commonly assumed,” The Express Tribune reported. The survey was produced with European Union support, Pakistan Observer reported, and is intended to give policymakers their first comprehensive evidence base on the problem in a generation.
