RAWALPINDI, July 13: Pakistan still lacks an adequate national system of child labour statistics which could provide reliable quantitative information on the number of working children.

The children’s geographical and sectoral/occupational distribution, age, sex and other relevant characteristics are also not available.

Statistics on various socioeconomic characteristics, especially those attributes that are related to the development of the child into a responsible adult member of the society, such as education status and achievements, the time allocated to various non-school activities, the income or expenditure level of the household to which the working child belongs, and important aspects of participation by children in economic activities and its impact, should also be generated to permit the analysis of the economic and social situation of particular groups of working children.

The Population Census which the government plans to hold in October this year will provide an ample opportunity to planners to gather information on child labour. Gathering of essential data would help design intervention policies specifically aimed at combating child labour, and at monitoring and evaluating progress in the implementation of action programmes.

The last national child labour survey was carried out in 1996, two years before the national census conducted in 1998, and since then the country’s population has risen by over 30 million people.

The survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics had found 3.3 million children in the five to 14 years age group to be economically active on a full-time basis.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in a new report, has called for national statistical programme on child labour in all its member states including Pakistan.

Indicators relating to nature of work, circumstances and harm therefore should be core elements of a national statistical programme on child labour, the ILO recommends.

The statistical programme should also provide baseline information on the reference child population engaged in what Convention No. 138 terms ‘work or employment’, of which child labour is a subset.

National statistical programmes should also collect detailed information on working hours as an important proxy for the potential harmfulness of work. While limited light work is not necessarily detrimental to a child’s health and need not interfere with formal education, long working hours, on the other hand, are likely to have more serious health and developmental consequences on the child, the report says.

Long hours mean greater exposure to workplace hazards and less time available for children to exercise their rights to education and leisure. Information of child labour in the so- called ‘unconditional worst forms’ is an especially important and challenging component of a national statistical programme on child labour.

These forms of child labour constitute fundamental violations of human rights, and obtaining information to facilitate their elimination is therefore an immediate priority.

The report says national statistical standards have to respond to the need of national users who wish to obtain information on the nationally prohibited forms and situations of child labour.

Child labour is widely recognised as a major hindrance to achieve the Education For All (EFA) goals.

A large number of child labourers is denied the fundamental opportunity to attend school, while those who combine work with schooling are often unable to fully profit from the education on offer.

The latest Unesco statistics show that 75 million children of primary school age were out of school in 2006, compared to a staggering 103 million in 1999. Incidence of children’s work also declined during that period. While still about one sixth of the total child population ages five to 14 - 191 million children - were involved in some kind of economic activity in 2004, there were some 20 million fewer working children in this age group than there had been four years earlier.

The ILO’s most recent global report on child labour emphasised the important contribution that action against child labour can make to the Education For All process. Yet, it also noted that the objectives of the latter will only be achieved if child labour concerns are effectively mainstreamed into the EFA monitoring and promotional efforts. Much remains to be done in this respect. Quite significantly, the report described the EFA and child labour movements as ‘two ships passing in the night’.

Children living in rural areas attend school less than their urban counterparts regardless of their working status. This is an expected result given that, in most cases, economic pressure to engage children in working activities is higher in the rural areas. In rural areas working children face a considerable school attendance disadvantage vis-i-vis non-working children.

Child labour not only represents a severe obstacle to school attendance, it also interferes with the educational performance of children who combine school and work.

Street children, child beggars, child porters, child rag- pickers, child scavengers and child domestic workers are the worst forms of child labour and require government’s plan of action to curb them. In bazaars, streets and traffic signals children are forced to beg either by parents or by the mafia after being trafficked.

The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was providing technical and financial support to pilot programmes and to strengthen the institutional capacity of the executing agencies.

Major strategies include enhancement of educational opportunities for working children through the launching of crash literacy programmes for school dropouts and introducing apprenticeship, vocational and skills development programmes.