Child labour in our culture

Karar Ali

There is a need for eliminating child labor in Pakistan. Child labor and child trafficking negatively affect human capital development and the overall national development agenda. When children do not go to school they are denied the knowledge and skills needed for national development. Educating children, rather than forcing them to work, could yield enormous economic benefits for developing nations, through increased productivity and human capital. Benefits of education however large, may not be enough to convince poverty struck families to stop sending children to work as the concern over household survival outweighs that of children’s future earnings, therefore this is the problem that Pakistan faces today.

Child labor in Pakistan is perhaps most rampant in a north-western province called Sialkot, near the border with Kashmir, which is an important production centre for exports goods such as sporting goods. Thousands of Pakistani children, many under the age of 10, get less than 10p an hour stitching soccer balls for export around the world. About three-quarters of all the high-quality footballs used in international competitions are made here where child labour is perhaps the most rampant (In 1994, it pumped the equivalent of $385 million into the Pakistan economy).

I think we need to educate our people and and also has to repair our damage culture. Children are not the labour material they are for love and its their right to get proper education and care from everyone. No one will support child labour and use them as an instrument or tool to achieve negative goals.

—Karachi