Socio-Economic Causes of Child Labor

5.10 The Daily (Monetary) Contribution of the Sample Respondents to their Familes

5.12 Classification of the Sample Respondents With Regard to the Adoption of Labour as a Future Career

5.14 Classification of the Sample Respondents With Regard to the Initial Decision to Start Labour

5.17 Classification of the Sample Respondents With Regard to the Behaviour of the Employment

Every praise be to Almighty ALLAH, the Kind & Merciful and the Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) who is forever a torch of guidance and knowledge for humanity as a whole.

I feel pride in expressing my deepest sense of gratitude to my honourable advisor Dr. Arbab Ikramullah, Associate Professor, IDS, N.W.F.P. Agricultural University, Peshawar who is the source of initiation of this project. His scholastic, consistent advice, encouraging behaviour, valuable suggestion, personal interest and dynamic supervision enabled me to complete the present thesis. This research work was hard to be accomplished without his cooperation.

I express my deep appreciation to co-advisor Dr. Inam ur Rahim Assistant Director, Livestock at Bisham Kohistan, for his help, cooperation, valuable suggestion, keen interest, dynamic guidance and for his brotherly attitude at the occasion of need.

I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Mir Kalan Shah, Director, Institute of Development Studies, for his kind supervision and departmental support and heartiest gratitude to Mr. Humayun, Mr. Aurangzeb, Dr. Anwar Hussain, Mr. Intikhab Alam, Mrs. Shaheen Shaukat, Mrs. Sehnaz Arifullah and Miss. Rahila for their valuable suggestions, guidance and constant encouragement.

I feel highly indebted to express my thanks to EPS (Environmental Protection Society, Swat), an NGO working for the betterment of Physical, Social and cultural Aspects of environment on the Northern part of Pakistan particularly Swat Valley, to provide me support to complete my research work. I would like to express my thanks to Mr. Bakht Jehan, Executive Director of EPS and entire staff of EPS for their help and cooperation during my research.

I express my profound feeling of admiration and gratitude to Engineer Shaukat A. Sharar AIAP, MPCATP Principal Architect, who encouraged and cooperated with me during research work throughout the duration of my stay in swat and provide me a well facilitative and luxurious accommodation in Mingora Swat.

I also appreciate the cooperation of Mr. Fazal Rabi, who accompanied me and facilitated my mission in the study area.

I am highly indebted to express my thanks to DAFI and UNHCR for their financial support during the course of this study. I offer my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Tauqir Mirza, Program Officer UNHCR Office, Islamabad, Mr. Niaz Ahmad, Associate Program Officer and Mr. Abudl Rahim Senior Secretary UNHCR sub Office, Peshawar for their help and cooperation in the completion of my study.

I also offer my faithful, cordial thanks and gratitude to all my sincere friends Shah Islam, M.Usman, Gul Pacha, Fazal Rehman, Ruh-Ul-Amin, Asghar Khan, Shafiullah, Ali ahmad, Umar, Khalid Wadan, Attiqullah and Samiullah who encouraged and cooperated with me not only during research work but also throughout the duration of study.

Last but not the least I am whole heartedly thankful to my Grand Parents, parents, Uncles: Mr.Ahmad Shah and Dr. Taimoor Shah, Brothers:
Dr. M. Naseem, Mr. Hashmatullah (Geologist), Mr. Fahim, Mr. Naqeebullah, Naveed Anjum and Waheedullah Sister, and Relatives for their encouragement, immense and affections in providing me an atmosphere conducive to the pursuit of my academic achievements. It is a fact that I would not have been successful in my aim without the sincere prayers of my Father, Mother and Grand Parents. They prayed for my success and provided all possible facilities and cooperation during my whole career. I can never compensate their unlimited love and kindness.

Last I owe highest regards to all those who helped and encouraged me in the completion of this research project.

Child means a person who has not completed his fourteen years of age. Child labour is the employment of children under the ages of 15 years with aim of earning a livelihood for themselves or for their families. The child labour is a global phenomenon today. Our socio-economic setup involves many issues and undesirable elements but the problem of child labour is of utmost importance, warranting immediate attention. Children of today are to be entrusted the responsibilities of the country in future. Hence ignorance towards their proper brought up and grooming not only results in aggravating the problems but leads to multi dimensional complications.

This study was conducted to identify the social and economic causes of child labour in Mingora District Swat with the objectives to: (a) to find out the social and economic causes of child labour, (b) to assess working conditions and working schedule of child labour and (c) to suggest remedial measures to reduce child labour.

A total number of 100 respondents equally distributed over four categories, workshops, Brick Kilns, Hotels and self employed were interviewed.

Of all causative factors, economic conditions of respondents’ families, large family size, parent’s income and education level occupy a vital role in forcing the children to labour.

The study recommends that information campaign should be organized every where to make people aware of harmful effects of child labour. Labors laws concerning child labour should be enforced forcefully. Education should be made compulsory and free for all at least at the primary level. Family planning be followed to over come the problem of expansion in family size and hence child labour. NGOs should make efforts to improve the working and living condition of child workers. To over come unemployment, job opportunities should be provided to unemployed people with reasonable salaries so that they may not send their children for labour. The children should have limited working hours. The political parties should include the elimination of child labour in their manifestos.

Child means a person who has not completed his fourteen years of age. The term child labour has differently been defined by a number of authors. According to Grand (1983) child labour is the employment of children when they are too young to work on wages or when they are employed for jobs unsuitable or unsafe. According to Folk (1987) child labour is any work by children that interferes with their full physical development, their opportunities for a desirable education or their needed recreation. Ahmad (1987) defined Child labour as any mental or physical work done by a child for earning wages. Shah (1997) defined Child labour "all children under the age 15 years in work or employment with the aim of earning a livelihood for themselves or for their families".

A common man can defined a child as an innocent creature who is neither aware of his right, nor of his duties but always is in search of love. Children unlike adults have their own psychology, their own wishes, desires and a separate world of their own according to their physical and mental setup. A vast gulf is there between the mental and physical setup of child and an adult and if we try to handle the child as we are handling adult, that is called exploitation.

Children are the symbol of beauty and future of the nation, needs attention, affection, nutrition, security, medical care and proper education for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. But unfortunately there are millions of children in our country who have been deprived of these basically necessary rights.

Child exploitation and child labour is spreading like cancer in our society. Different socio-economic factors can be held responsible for the spreading and prevalence of child labour. These factors include poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of family planning, dissatisfaction about education system, absence of social security mechanism and many other. It is the responsibility of the government to provide children their rights and to protect them from all sorts of exploitations. The future of mankind and civilization lies in children. Their protection from physical and social hazards is a pre-requisite for proper development of children to ensure future progress and prosperity of mankind. (Shah 1997).

Unfortunately a large number of children all over the world especially in developing countries are deprived of education and other facilities of life. The socio-economic pressure compels these children for labour, (who should be in school) and as result face the harsh realities of subordinate work simply for monetary gains. The developing countries have been facing the crises of child labour, due to poor economic, and social conditions. Children in these countries work for longer period in hazardous and life threatening conditions. (Grant 1983).

Morally, mentally and physically healthy child is an asset for a nation. This should be the duty of all of us to ensure that today's children are physically, emotionally and educationally equipped for the future. Our responsibility is to meet their needs for health care, protection, economic support and education. To day this vision is gaining ground amongst the nations of the world and for quite sometime the intelligentia has been trying to convince the world that protection of the most vulnerable and particularly growing minds and bodies of young children is both a moral imperative and a practical pre condition for sustained economic growth and social progress (Ashraf 1994).

The informal sector in a number of developing countries in general and in Pakistan in particular, accounts for a large share of the economic activities of the country. Children thus participate fully in every activity of the informal sector. Such as workshop, small scale industries, leather work, carpet weaving centers, cheap hotels, brick kilns, vendors, and garages. In addition, a substantial number are self employed, hawking cheap goods, shining shoes or collecting waste material (Tunio 1992).

Although the 1973 constitution of Pakistan clearly states that no child under the age of 14 shall be employed in hazardous jobs, we find children under 14 years of age working under life threating conditions. So for no active efforts have been put in by any of our government to enforce any such law (Nawaz 1993).

Nawaz (1993) concluded that children in their childhood need love, affection, understanding, security, education and good socialization, however, poor economic conditions compel them to do hard labour.

The most important causes of child labour are poverty and unemployment of children’s parents. When parents either earn low wages or when they do not get enough work to feed their family, they are forced to send children to work (Nawaz, 1993).

Children are the wealth of nations. Too often this priceless resource is squandered. At a time when they should be acquiring the skills, knowledge, values and sense of personal worth that produce good citizens, children are being exploited as mere commodities and cheep labour. They are robbed of their childhood. Their physical, intellectual and emotional health is threatened, some times permanently crippled, by substandard working conditions and long hours with little compensation. Child labour tends to be invisible, illegal and unremarked by most of society. In part, the problem is perpetuated by a combination of public ignorance and apathy. One focus of ILO action making the invisible visible, by throwing the light of public scrutiny on working children. The ILO recognizes that child labour is a complex and often intractable problem deeply rooted in poverty, and even in some value systems, it is not going to disappear over night. It can be eliminated only through step by step long term approaches within each country. Child labour is a pervasive problem, but Asia has been achieving visible reductions (ILO, 1997).

Asia is home to some of the most economically dynamic countries in the world. At the same time, this region has the greatest concentration of the world's poorest people. It also employees over 60% of the world's child labour, often in intolerable forms.

The biggest employer of children in the country are agriculture, brick kilns, small industries, carpet weaveries, domestic service and urban informal sector (NCCR-UNICEF 1998).

The phenomenon of child labour, which is a consequence of the exploitative systems operating at the national and international levels, not only closes the future of millions of children in the third world countries but it also restricts the developmental prospects of these countries drastically. The existence of child labour is a threat to a overall world development and to the solidarity and peace in the world. Eradication of child labour from the world is therefore a goal which must be achieved at the earliest (Hirway et al. 1991).

The international labour organization estimates that there are around 250 million children working all over the world. At least 120 million children aged between 5 and 14 are working full time. One third of them are performing dangerous work (ILO/IPEC 1998).

According to ILO estimate there are 50 million child labour in the world at the beginning of eighties. The UN study on child labour (Economics and social council of UN) estimated that there are 145 million child labour in the world. (Hirway et al. 1991).

According to ILO estimate more than 73 million children in age group 10-14 years alone were economically active around the world in 1995 (Shah 1997).

According to ILO about 55% of the world child labour is in south east Asian countries 17% in the remaining Asian countries about 19% in Africa, 6% in South America rest 2% live in Europe, north America and Australia etc. (Hirway et al. 1991).

The international labour organization (ILO) presented the figures in conference held at Bangkok that at least 120 million across the Globe are in full time work. While upto 130 million have part time jobs. More than 60% of the full time child workers are in Asia, the worst affected region of the world where upto 50% of youngsters are bread winners. (The News 1997).

Child labour has been acknowledged as a serious and challenging issue in the civilized societies around the globe. Its continued existence remain a source of concern for all segments of human society. Inspite of the call for understanding of the issue by a large majority of the countries, the prevalence of child labour in the developing nations including Pakistan is one proof that practical dependence on working children still has an alarming sound around the world.

Pakistan is building up a gigantic collection of illiterates. According to the survey there are over 32 million adult illiterates plus over 7 million children aged 5.51 who do not attend schools. The drop out rate is 45% which translates into another 7 million leaving whatever from schooling. The gross primary enrollment is only 30% among females while for males it is 57%. Similarly secondary gross enrollment is 23% for females and 46% for males. The ratio of illiteracy among 15 years old is 86% for females and 59% for males (Pakistan and Gulf Economist 1999).

According to the child labour survey of 1996, conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics with the assistance of ministry of labour and ILO/IPEL, Pakistan, out of total children population of nearly 40 million, 3.6 million or 8.25% children are engaged in labour. The biggest employers of children in the country are agriculture, brick kilns, small industries, carpet weaveries, domestic service and urban informal sector. A sizeable number are self-employed doing menial jobs like vending, scavenging, shoe shining, car cleaning etc. As mentioned above, this situation is, however not unique to Pakistan. In fact all over the developing countries 75 million children between 8 and 15 years of age work as labourers. Child labour has developed into a wide scale problem in all parts of the world (The Daily Muslim Lahore 1997).

According to Pakistan and Gulf Economist 1999 Punjab has 1.943 million or 58.65% children in the labour force similarly Sindh has 0.298 million or 9.00% children and NWFP has 1.058 million or 31.93% child labour, while Balochistan has 0.014 million or 0.42% children, employed in various fields. About 72% of the working children are based in rural areas, the remaining 28% reside in urban locations (Pakistan and Gulf Economist 1999).

Pakistan is a developing country and does not have a sound economic structure, forcing the majority of its population especially in Katchi Abadis and slums, to live under extreme economic deprivation. Due to poverty, children are also forced to work and seek financial gains for their sustenance. It seems that every where children take part in economic activities with their parents for the survival of the family. Child work in many cases represents the will of the child to survive in a social system that has forsaken them. Early involvement of children in economic activities may pose a number of problems for them and their families in the long run. Working children are more susceptible to infectious diseases, and suffer from malnutrition, anemia and inadequate sleep. The psycho-social development of the working children is retarted due to prolonged working hours, burden of too much responsibilities and deprivation of education. Child labour can result in trafficking and abuse as well as deprivation of their rights, welfare and development (Raza 1995).

Pakistan's total population is estimated to be around 140 million in 1999 out of this 70.8 million are under 18 years age while 24 million are under 5. On the basis of this estimate, 46.8 million children are in the age group 5-18 years. A child between the age of 5-18 years could either be in school, working in a work place or at home. Child labour survives in Pakistan in innumerable occupations and patterns. According to the survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of statistics and the ILO in Islamabad on October 9, 1996, 3.3 million children are economically active in Pakistan. About 67% of employed children in Pakistan are engaged in Agricultural sector, 11% in manufacturing sector, 9% in whole sale and retail trade and 8% in community, social and personal services. Seventy percent of the working children were estimated by the survey to be working as unpaid family helpers, followed by 23% as employees and 7% as self employed (Jillani and Jillani 2000).

Being a feudal country, Pakistan has a large number of bonded children i.e. those who have either been pledged by their parents for paltry sums of money, or those working to pay off the inherited debts of their parents. The majority of Pakistan's children work as non-wage earners, as part of a family work force. They are engaged mostly in domestic work involving cooking, cleaning, taking care of younger siblings, tending livestock, gathering wood for cooking and fetching water from distant sources. However, there is also a sizeable number of children who worked for wages which is the most dramatic form of exploitation of children. This kind of activity may be found in agricultural field, carpet work and manufacturing of bricks. Children also work in the urban areas. The working children in the urban sector do work in factories, workshops, Tea stalls, eating establishments, cycle repair shops, printing presses, restaurants and hotels (Jillani 2000).

Child labour is not a new phenomenon. Historically speaking, it has always been customary for children to work along side their parents and other family members and child labour thus has existed from time immemorial in one form or another. Only the children of the privileged classes could escape manual work. However, the notion that child labour is a social problem, a phenomenon hindering the physical and mental development of the child, is a relatively recent development. The interpretation of child labour, and the accompanying idea that child should be protected against it, came in to force, when paid child labour became common.

Child labour was not created by industrialization, nor it is the result of capitalism. It represents the persistence of traditional pre industrial conception of the children in relation to work and to parents. The traditional conception in the most societies was that children should be socialized to contribute to the maintenance of family. Early in life, children begin the process of entering adulthood through a period of work apprenticeship. The family, not the individual, is the unit of social actions as the family develop (Khan, 1997).

In the fourth century, Plato advocated the idea that all children are born with certain "talents" and that any training provided to children should attempt to accentuate those traits. He pointed out that all children should be treated as individuals and their individuality should be celebrated. Aristotle also wrote about children and made the contribution of proposing methods of observing children's behaviour for their ultimate benefit (Puppas, 1983).

These ideas remained dormant for centuries, while societies the world over followed the norm of social reproduction and social classes reproduced themselves. Children followed the professions of their parents upon growing up. The children of the rich aspired to become priests, rulers and land owners; while the poor helped their parents from an early age in gathering food, hunting cultivating crops, collecting fire wood and in various similar other ways. Children were only perceived as helping hands (Weiner, 1991).

Child labour in the nineteenth century Europe was qualitatively different from what had preceded it. Children were employed in factories for employers and for wage. Some worked in cottage and in tenants with their parents, who in turn were paid for the output of the household. Industrialization increased job opportunities for working class families. Urban working class families dependent on daily wage sought to reduce risk through the employment of their children. Children work became more dangerous when machines and chemical endangered their well being, ventilation was poor, hours long, and wages low (though higher than what children could earn in money or in kind by working on the form with their parents) (Khan, 1997).

According to the Encyclopedia of Britannica, the movement to regulate child labour began in great Britain at the close of the 18^th century, when rapid development of large scale manufacturing had resulted in the exploitation of very young children in mining and industrial work.

In Europe, North America, Australia and Newzealand, children under 15 rarely worked except in commercial agriculture, because of the effective enforcement of laws passed in the first half of the 20^th century. (The New Encyclopedia of Britannica 1986)

Industrial child labour first appeared with the development of the domestic system. In this type of production an entrepreneur bought raw material to be "put out" to the homes of the work men to be spawn, woven, sewn or handled in some other manner. This permitted a division of labour and a degree of specialization among various families, pay was the piece, and children use extensively at whatever they could perform. The domestic system was largely replaced by the factory system associated, with the industrial revolution, which gained impetus in the 16^th century. Machinery, driven by water power and later by steam, took over many functions formally performed by land labour and was centralized in factories situated at the source of the power, children could and did tend the machines in ever increasing number from as early as the age of five. Child labour also proliferated in coal mining. Half-naked children as young as six incredibly worked long hours in the damp and drill. In fact the child labour has always been cheap labour, wherever it is, employment has not been regulated, employers has tended to use it excessively. With the decline of apprenticeship and the growth of the modern factory system, the conditions under which children work became increasingly hard. Beginning with the early years of the nineteenth century, the public began gradually to recognize the evils of child labour and to provide for its regulation through the passage of legislation. During the past hundred years laws regulating the employment of children in industrial and commercial pursuits have been enacted in practically all civilized countries, and the standards of regulation have been gradually raised from decade to decade (Khan, 1997).

Islam is the state religion of Pakistan. The rights of children are guaranteed by Islam which lays down some guiding principles for up bringing, maintenance and character building of children, so as to make them useful and responsible members of society. It prohibits discrimination of children on the basis of sex or their faith. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) regarded children as "Flowers from the garden of Allah".

Islam requires its followers to treat children kindly. The father is held responsible for the maintenance of his children. Apart from fulfillment of material needs and providing a decent treatment, Islam enjoins its followers to get their children well trained and educated, it in fact lays great stress on the necessity of acquiring education (Tunio, 1992).

All human beings, adults and children alike, are entitled to human rights. It has long been recognized that children require special attention and protection. A number of international instruments have been adopted in order to try, protect these rights, safeguard them from exploitation and to ensure that all children have access to education and are able to develop properly. These include:

One of the most effective methods of ensuring that children do not start working too young is to set the minimum age at which children can legally be employed. The main principles of the ILO's 1973 convention concerning the minimum age for admission to employment concern:

The convention also recommends that the minimum age for employment should not be less than the age for completing compulsory schooling. (IPEC, ILO 1998).

Forced or compulsory labour both for adults and children is universally considered to be unacceptable. The ILO's forced labour conventions protects children from some of the worst forms of exploitation such as bondage and prostitution. This convention requires that countries adopt effective measures in order to abolish these work practices, to make them illegal and a punishable offence.

More recently, the International Labour Organization concluded that it was necessary to strengthen existing conventions on child labour. It is currently at the preliminary stages of developing new instruments which would legally commit countries to do their utmost for eliminate extreme forms of child labour. (IPEC, ILO, 1998).

Children, like adults are entitled to basic human rights. But because of their special needs and vulnerability, children's rights need to be addressed with particular care and attention. The United Nations Convention on the rights of the children was drawn up in order to enforce and safeguard children rights. These rights include:

A conference was held in Thailand, in 1990 to devise international measures advocating the rights of all children to receive basic education and skill training. The key elements of the declaration are:

Laws consist of those recognized rules which are acted upon by the courts for administration of justice. The law which has children as its subject matter is child law. It includes governing the age of children with regards to entering into employment/labour. It includes children in the age group of 4 to 14 years, working for long hours, in unhealthy and dangerous conditions, under physical, social and psychological strain, earning low wages and having no time for rest, play or education (UNICEF, 1999).

The problem of child labour is not a new one. We can see this problem in the long past too. Similarly the problem was felt by the sensitive members of that time also and we can trace the state of labourers, in England first "poor law" enacted in 1349. Then after its long journey the child labour legislation can be traced in Indo-Pak also (Akhtar, 1998).

Child means a person who has not completed his 15^th year of age. A child who has completed 14^th year of his age is allowed to work in a factory, provided a certificate of fitness is given by a surgeon. A child who has not completed 14^th year of his age shall not be allowed to work in any factory. Children between 15 to 17 years of age are called adolescent. They are also allowed to work in a factory. (UNICEF 1999).

Section 2 of this act defines child as a person who is under the age of 15 years and guardian includes any person having legal custody of or control over a child (Hussain, 1983).

According to section 3(1) no child who has not completed his 15 years shall be employed or permitted to work in any occupation connected with the transport of passengers, goods or mail by rail way or involving the handling of goods with in the limits of any port.

Section 3(2) says that no child who has completed his 15^th year but has not completed his 17^th year, shall be employed or permitted to work in any occupation and with the interval at least 12 hours between 2 consecutive working periods (Javed, 1983).

Section 4 deals with the age certificates to the young person for employment or seeking employment in a workshop may be granted by any medical practitioner registered under the medical Act, 1858 or under any Act of any legislature in Pakistan (Akhtar, 1998).

According to this law under section 3(1). No child should be employed in any factory in any of the operations specified in the schedule which is injurious to health (Nudrat, 1983).

Under section 7 of these rules, a child is not permitted to work between 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. under section 8 of these rules, if a child is employed between these hours, medical certificate of his physical fitness shall be required and he should be employed under the personal supervision of a person of more than 18 years of age. This section also says about the rest period which is at least 13 consecutive hours between working periods (Akhtar, 1998).

According to the constitution of Pakistan 1973, all children below the age of 14 years are prohibited to work in any factory or mine or engage in any other hazardous employed (Article 11-3). The dignity of every man to law has been guaranteed as a fundamental right under the constitution (Article 14-1). In addition, the constitution makes it a principle of policy of the state to protect the marriage, the family, the mother and the child (Article 35) to remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education with in the minimum possible period (Article 37-b), and making provisions for securing just and human conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not employed in vocation unsuited to their age or sex, and for maternity benefits for women in employment (Article 37-e) (Munir, 1973).

The child Act, 1991 was passed by the National Assembly. Few features of the Act were improved on the previous legislation for example what constitute "a child" is now clearly defined as "a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age" and working hours per day. Inclusive of one hour of rest after three hours of consecutive work (Ali, 1991).

Employment of children below 15 years is prohibited. Even their mere presence in an underground mine is not allowed. (UNICEF 99).

Prohibits employment of child below 14 years of age in any establishment. It also regulates/restricts working hours for children between 14-17 years to 7 hours a day. (UNICEF 1999).

No child below 14 years of age can be negated or carried to sea for work, in a ship registered in Pakistan or any foreign ship. Except in ship which is used as school, or soils as training shop. (UNICEF 1999).

The world labour report 1993 released by the ILO in May, 1993 says, "Bonded labour is out lawed by Pakistan constitution as well as by recent laws. However, Pakistan's government has recognized that the problem is still widespread and has resolved to eradicate it. The first step is introduction of effective legislation". The report mentions the supreme court order of 1988 which for the first time considered brick kiln workers as bonded labours. It also mentions the law passed by the National Assembly in February 1992 which abolishes the bonded labour. (The News 1993).

Child labour, which once was a normal and inevitable outcome of the current culture pattern, has gradually become socially undesirable. However, attitudes towards child labour continue to lag behind the new industrial deal. A certain amount of such labour, therefore, still persists and the fundamental causes remain but slightly modified. There are many reasons for children to work, some genuine such as death of father or prolonged illness of parents or unemployment of fathers and parental greed and exploitation of children. The other reasons for continuation of child labour in Pakistan i.e. tradition of adult literacy, lack of social security and cheapness of human labour. But there are certain causes for continuation of child labour in Pakistan.

Poverty, unemployment and population explosion are the three primary interacting causes which force families to put their younger one to work.

Education system, quality of schools, social security system, and customary / historical trends and demand for child workers.

Humberger (1971) concluded that children who enter the labour force, carry out work that could very well be done by an adult, this is, they usually deprive an adult of the job in question. Moreover, the child does the job for much lower wages than would have to be paid to an adult. For this reason many employers prefer to engage children. There is in fact a vicious circle here. On the one hand child labour increases unemployment among adults and reduces their income and on the other hand the unemployment and low wages force the adults to put their children to work in order to boost the family income. Thus child labour simultaneously increases and reduces the family income but as is clear, it reduced rather than increases that income.

Khan (1971) concluded that ultimately death of the father and low family income force majority of the children to take care of the family because they are the only source of income or they help in running their family matters.

Porter (1975) concluded that most of the children between age 10-15 years have stopped their education before primary school level. Most of the children have no education and their prospects for advancement and fulfillment of various skills which they are doing is very low.

The Pakistan times (1980) revealed that in Pakistan, 50% of the child labour is employed in Agriculture and carpet sector. They are used ruthlessly and are not paid very much. These children work for endless hours and are treated harshly.

Bibi (1980) reported that majority of the parents sent their children to work due to their poor economic conditions. She reported that thousands of the children under age 15 years were working under highly unhygienic conditions and ratio of female working was higher than male. They were low paid and had to work for 60-90 hours a week.

Perviz (1981) pointed out that 80 percent of the parents send their children to work due to their poor economic conditions. A majority of the parents of the working children also send their children because they could not afford to run the family. This is the main reason behind sending the children for work.

Fazal (1981) concluded that due to poor economic condition majority of the parents sent their children to work so that the family income may increase. Majority of the working children belonged to the age group of 10-12 years. According to these finding 68% of the children were found unhappy with their jobs. He found a significant relationship between the income of the children and number of working children engaged in labour.

Metz et al. (1982) concluded after a general review of the socio-economic importance of child labour and its effects. Accounts are given of the employment of children in Agriculture, industry and the informal sector in Egypt, Thailand, Colombia, India, Peru and Srilanka. Finally an account is given of ILO, UNICEF and the Anti-slavery society research and activities on child labour.

Raja (1983) concluded that the reason for dropping out of school were poverty, lack of interest in studying and large number of children. He also found that 70% of the children were working 9-11 hours daily. This adversely affected physical growth of the child but also resulted in deficient socialization

Rana (1985) found that majority of the child workers were working for 9-12 hours a day. She also found that more than 70 percent of the children were induced to work by their parents. She described, that main reason for inducement is poverty and other social and traditional factors. She also found that these children are very regular to go to work.

Duglas (1986) studied the working conditions and causes of the incidence of child labour in Pakistan and found that a child works in all weathers and majority of these children do not have the ventilation and toilet facilities at their work premises. They also suffer weather hazards at their work place.

Dhillon et al. (1986) concluded that majority of the male and female children employed in the labour force in Iudhiana District. India Punjab, were of 12-14 years of age and were working as casual agricultural labourers or domestic servants. These children were contributing upto Rs.800 annually to the family income. The factors responsible for child labour were unsound economic conditions of the family, hereditary occupation of parents, rising prices of consumable goods, increased demand for Agricultural work in peak seasons, large family size, irregular family income and untimely death of the main wage earner.

Folks (1987) defines child labour as "any work by children that interferes with their full physical development, the opportunity for a desirable minimum of education or their needed recreation. It is the employment of children in any occupation at unfit ages or for unreasonable hours, or unhealthy or hazardous conditions or while the schools which they should attend are in session".

Hussain (1987) suggests that in most professions, child workers contribute a substantial proportion of total family income and are obliged to work because of the poverty pressure in the family i.e. in order to start supplementing family income at an early age. The pressure to supplement family income can be gauged by the fact that child workers are prepared to work typically 54 or 72 hours a week. The working hours of children are longer than their adult counterparts. According to the study most of the children workers were uneducated, nevertheless an overwhelming proportion of them wished to acquire an education and consider it useful. This is another indicator of the economic pressures on the family that free oblige children to work at an age when they would rather be in school.

Hussain (1987) reports that majority (64%) of the respondents belongs to a large sized families and have 6-8 brothers and sisters. Majority of the children are in the age group of 11-14 years. Most of them are working without clean and cold drinking water at the working place. They have no proper facilities such as, first aid, light, bonus etc. They have no planning about their future.

Kothari (1988) examines the child labour in Match and Fireworks Industries in and around Sivakasi, Ramana Thapuram District Tamil Nadu. Many of the 45000 children employed in these industries can be found in the small scale and cottage industries in the rural areas. The ages of the children range from 3.5 - 5 years and work upto 12 hours a day in hazardous conditions. The fundamental reasons for the perpetuation of child labour in this district are examined. The extent to which local and control government are negligent and apathetic to the plight of the working children is discussed, together with how government policy affects the match industry. The extent of violation of laws binding an employers of children, and the laws relating to child labour in general are reviewed.

Zia (1990) concluded that due to the expansion of financial gap between the rich and the poor, child labour increases. Parents look upon each child as an extra earning hand. Children are widely employed in the carpet, fisheries, bhatta and match making industries. They are also seen at motor workshop, hotels and restaurants. They also accompany their elders for house work in a million of urban homes.

A survey carried out by Piller in 1990 (Quoted by Kutty, 1995) on 500 house holds in Karachi city revealed that the major reason for child labour was poverty of the household. However, in some cases children as well as their parents preferred the learning of skills on job to their schooling, given the extremely poor and irrelevant nature of education imparted in the ordinary type of schools. According to the survey, 58% of the children were working to supplement family income.

Khizra et al. (1990) reported that the curse of child labour is a universal phenomenon. In view of economic compulsions and demographic characteristics of the developing countries of the world, total elimination of child labour will neither be possible nor realistic in the near future for many reason. The world's relief agencies also seem to agree that the abolition of child labour would be an unrealistic goal. According to them , families of most working children depend upon their labour to stay alive. The phenomenon with all its positive and negative implications needs to be closely looked into from the stand point of its socio-economic consequences both at the micro and macro levels.

Lee Wright (1990) in his study consider the world wide exploitation of children in Agriculture, industry and prostitution. Whether making shoes in Portugal or Brazil, carpets and brassware in India, or textiles in Turkey or Bangladesh, or as prostitutes in Thailand or the Philippines, children play a crucial part in many economies and in much international trade. Horrifying stories of the individual children vividly show that their lives are stunted and brutal, with their labour directed to providing goods for western shops or services for western tourists.

Mateen (1990) in a case study found that children who learn to shoulder responsibility at a young age mature early. Missing out the innocence in care free world of child hood. With all the understanding of a child aware of his hard facts of life, knows that the monetary gain in their case is not so important as staying away from the various influences of local bad people. They indulge in the bad habits like smoking, gambling etc.

Ali (1992) concluded that with limited financial resources, poor socio-economic conditions aggravated by increasing population, the developing countries can not fully enforce the enactment concerning child labour and child welfare. As long as poverty persists, their economy continues to be agrobased and literacy rate remain low. Due to economically hard pressed, poor parents are compelled to send their children out as wage earners to supplement the family income.

The News Week (Jan 1993) examined the working conditions of children and concluded that children works for endless hours sleep on factory floors. The children do not get their basic facilities of health, water and entertainment.

Ireland (1993) concluded that the sexual abuse and exploitation of children by tourists and international travelers is investigated in this report, with the Philippines, Srilanka and Thailand chosen as case studies for reasons concerned with access to information and contacts, although there are reports of children involved in prostitution in Africa, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe and North America. The international compaign to end child prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) has been instrumental in encouraging government to acknowledge the problem and take action to confront it. It is suggested that problem is one to which a "blind eye" has been turned in the past in the countries in which it takes place and internationally. The purpose of this study is to bring together information about the tourist connection in the sexual exploitation of children and to establish what is and what is not known about the size and nature of the phenomenon. The first section of the report gives a review of previous studies on the subject, the second provides a conceptual frame work and profile of child abusers and is followed by detail of the problem in Philippines, Srilanka and Thailand . The relationship between the exploitation of the child and tourism is also examined. The interventions that have been tried or proposed in attempting to reduce the demand for the sexual exploitation of children by international travelers and tourist have also been reviewed.

Dhagamwar (1994) concluded that for over four decades, free and compulsory education for children upto the age of 14 years has been state policy in India, but this has not always been achieved. This paper looks at Article 41 and 45, both dealing with education, to find out why this is so. After the supreme court's interpretation, every child in India has a fundamental right to education until the age of 14. It is now for social activists to make the first move, and file numerous petitions in the public interest and demand is fulfilled in their village or other local administrative jurisdiction. The issue of child labour needs to be examined in this context.

Gulrajani (1994) concluded that the issues relating to use of cheap labour through a case study of the hand-woven knitted woolen carpet industry in India, which produces almost exclusively for the export market, and is perhaps the biggest employer of child labour in the manufacturing sector. The paper discusses the carpet industry, and the role that the children play. It concludes that banning child labour and providing compulsory primary education will not solve the problem of parental poverty.

Ravololomanga and Schlemmer (1994) concluded that the Madagascar has been undergoing an economic crisis during the past twenty years. In order to survive, many families, both in the country side and in urban centres, have no other choice but to depend on the support of their children. The paper presents an overview of the sources as well as the consequences of Madagascar economic crisis. In particular, it examines changes occurring in the family structure and in the lives of children. The paper noticed that in the context of the growing economic crisis in Madagascar, child labour is considered a vital necessity. It examines the different types of work that children are subjected to and in order to illustrate these types of work, two case studies are presented. The paper concludes that the incidence of child labour can be accounted for by economic necessity but that there is also a prevalent cultural ideology that supports the work of children.

A survey was conducted in Bangkok by the national statistical office (1995). The findings of this survey show that in the developing countries, the driving force behind every case of child labour is of course, poverty but the basic cause is usually a combination of some of the factors. These factors are poverty, parent want them to work, better than doing nothing, least interest in education.

The Dawn (June 20, 1995) described the conditions which make the children to do labour. The under privileged classes see the child labour as vital to the family's financial security, to prevent starvation and child beggary which is child labour at its worst. But this child labour is also a hurdle in the development of family as well as nation. Because these children do not go to schools and hence their families do not make progress.

The Daily News (1995) describes that child labour is a reality in many parts of the world and Pakistan is one of them. Pakistan has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Statistics warn us that if the present population growth rate continues, Pakistan would have the second largest population in the world by the year 2050. This rapid increase in the population is one of the main causes of child labour.

The Daily News (1995) described that there are many factors that push children to work, such as poverty, lack of awareness, social traditions, family pressures, lack of access to schooling or access only to poor schooling that lead to a high drop out rates and later on free employment opportunities, along with exploitative employer who like their labour cheap and choice.

The Daily News (1995) described that poverty is commonly considered as the major cause of child labour. Research studies indicate multiple factors including poverty, responsible for pushing children in exploitative labour. Such as availability of cheap and docile labour, lack of awareness among masses about the intrinsic value of education, lack of opportunities for compulsory free and quality education, presence of safeguards in the legislation for employment of children in the garb of vocational training and engagement of children in industrial/small industrial process carried out by family ventures, and ineffective enforcement of the prohibitive legislation.

Black (1995) Carried out a study in four major tourist destinations: Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and Srilanka, where child work is common both in the regular part of the industry and its twilight zone. the report challenges many assumption about child involvement in the tourist industry, and highlights the problems of inadequate data and the distorting effect of sensational reporting on the subject of child sex. The study investigated the conditions of child work in clubs, hotels, and restaurants. The very characteristics of employment in this sector: low pay and irregularity of work, as well as the lack of skills associated with most occupations, favour the employment of underage workers. Youthful good looks and charm are key qualifications for many jobs in bars, cafes and eating houses, and work as servers or receptionists may exposes employees to sexual enticement. However, many of the girls usually described as child prostitutes in journalistic accounts are actually working in the Twilight zone of the tourist industry rather than in brothles.

The Daily News (Jan, 1997) mentioned the conditions in which children work. Children work harder and harder. They carry heavy loads, bare footed while their rich compatriots enjoy all the facilities of life to the maximum possible extent. Most of these children support many brothers and sisters and they are too young to bear such heavy responsibilities, but they have to do this because their economic conditions and large number of family members are the main reason behind this.

HRCP (1999) Genva, Unanimously adopted an international treaty banning the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, trafficking in children and prostitution. The ILO's 415 delegations, its 174 member status and all of its labour union and employer representative voted in favour of the "Worst forms of child labour convention 1999" the ILO estimates that as many as 60 million children under the age of 14 are engaged in the worst forms of child labour.

This study is based on both primary and secondary data sources, intensive use was, however made of the former. To this end, working children were directly approached and interviewed to collect primary data. The sample survey by using a interviewing schedule was carried out for the collection of primary data. The data with respect to interest in education, literacy status, illiteracy reasons or reasons of leaving school, nature of activity, daily working hours, payment pattern, daily contribution, employer behaviour, father monthly income and educational qualification, working conditions, family size etc. of the sample respondents were collected. The survey covered four categories of working children in the informal sector. As regards residency status the working children of Minogra and rural migrants were interviewed but this study plan focus on urban area of Mingora district Swat, as Mingora city has concentration of child labour in informal sectors.

Ideally, the larger the sample the better the results but given limited time and resources a total of 100 respondents were interviewed. The respondents were distributed over four categories i.e. workshops, Brick kilns, Hotels (Hotel and Tea caf�) and self employed (vendors and waste material collectors). From each category 25 respondents were selected randomly. Further details regarding the sample are given as:

Before proceeding to the field for actual data collection, it was considereds necessary to test the validity and accuracy of the interviewing schedule. In the present study, pre-testing was done by interviewing eight respondents, two from each category, in order to check the validity and accurancy and to evaluate operational difficulties. As a result of pre-testing necessary modification and changes were made to make the schedule more relevant and understandable. However, besides the answers of the respondents, some extra informastion were also recorded.

The frequency distributions of various categories of the working children were constructed to summarize and describe the data. The formula used to calculate the percentage is given below:

This chapter presents an analysis of socio-economic causes of child labour. The data were collected through interviewing schedule concerning different aspects of child labour by directly contacting child labours in Mingora District Swat. The size of the sample was 100. The over all sample was distributed into four categories of child labour naming: workshop, Brick Kilns, Hotel and Tea Cafe and vendors and collectors of waste materials.

Table 5.1 shows that in the project area as whole 89% sample children were interested in education and 11% were not interested in education. As far as different categories of children are concerned, 76% children in category A, 96% in category B, 88% in category C and 96% in category D have shown positive response towards education while 24%, 4%, 12% and 4% have shown negative response. It may be concluded that a large proportion of the sample respondents were interested in education but due to unfavorable circumstances, they were unable to get education and had to do some work.

A stands for workshop, B stands for brick kilns, C Stands for hotel and tea cape,
D stands for vendors and collectors of waste materials

Table 5.2 further reflects that in the project area as a whole 60.68% sample respondents were interested in formal education while 39.32% were interested in informal education. Category wise distribution was as: 73.6% in category A, 33.33% in category B, 77.28% in category C and 62.5% in category D have shown interest in formal education. And 26.4% in category A, 66.67% in category B, 22.72% in category C and 37.5% in category D have shown interest in informal education.

The above figures indicate that majority of the sample respondents have shown interest in getting education, whether formal or informal but due to poverty they are unable to get education.

S.No.	Category	No.	Formal	Informal
1	A	19	14 (73.6)	5 (26.4)
2	B	24	8 (33.33)	16 (66.67)
3	C	22	17 (77.28)	5 (22.72)
4	D	24	15 (62.5)	9 (37.5)
	All	89	54 (60.68)	35 (39.32)

Table 5.3 shows that in the project area as whole 64% were literate and 36% were illiterate. Categories wise distribution of this sample literate respondents was as: 92% in category A, 40% in category B, 72% respondents in category C and 52% respondents in category D were literate and 8% in category A, 60% in category B, 28% in category C and 49% in category D were illiterate.

Table 5.4 shows that in the project area as a whole 73.43% of the respondents had education upto primary level, 21.87% had education upto middle level and the remaining 4.68% of the respondents had religious education. Category wise distribution was as: 60.87% in category A, 100% in category B, 72.22% in category C and 76.92% in category D had education upto primary level and 39.13% in category A, 0% in category B, 27.78% in category C and 0%) in category D had education upto middle.

Table 5.5 shows that in the project area as a whole 86% of the respondents left the school due to poor economic condition. Their parents were too poor and could not afford their educational expenses. As regard discontinuing education, 6% of the respondents left the school due to fear of teachers, 5% of the respondents left the school due to no interest in education and 3% of the respondents left the school due to poor academic performance. Category wise distribution was as: 64% respondents in category A, 96%) in category B, 84% in category C and 100% in category D left the school due to poor economic condition. 12% in category A, 4% in category B, 8% in category C and 0% in category D left the school due to fear of teacher. 12% in category A and 8% in category C left the school due to no interest in education. 12% in category A left the school due to poor academic performance.

Table 5.6 shows that in the project area as whole 20% of the respondents were interested in learning, 75% of the respondents were interested in earning and 5% of the respondents were interested in both learning and earning.

Category wise distribution was as: 80% in category A had learning type activity, 100% in category B, 100% in category C and 100% in category D had earning type of activity and 20% in category A had learning and earning type activity. It may be concluded that large majority 75% of the respondents were doing work for earning purposes.

Table 5.7 shows that in the project area as a whole 69% of the respondents reported their daily working hours between 11-15 hours, 24% of the respondents reported their daily working hours between 6-10 hours and 7% of the respondents reported their daily working hours between 1-5 hours. Category wise distribution was as: 80% in category A, 36% in category B, 96% in category C and 64% in category D have reported to have been working for 11-15 hours daily. 8% in category A, 60% in category B and 28% in category D reported to have been working for 6 to 10 hours daily. And 12% in category A, 4% in category B, 4% in category C and 8% in category D reported to have been working for 1-5 hours daily.

S.No.	Categories	Sample fraction (%)
1	Work shop	25 (25)
2	Brick kilns	25 (25)
3	Hotels (Hotel and caf�)	25 (25)
4	Self employed (vendors and waste material collectors)	25 (25)
	Total	100 (100)

S.NO	Category	No.	Interest
S.NO	Category	No.	Positive	Negative
1	A	25	19 (76)	6 (24)
2	B	25	24 (96)	1 (4)
3	C	25	22 (88)	3 (12)
4	D	25	24 (96)	1 (4)
	All	100	89 (89)	11 (11)

S.No.	Category	No.	Literacy status
S.No.	Category	No.	Literate	Illiterate
1	A	25	23 (92)	2 (8)
2	B	25	10 (40)	15 (60)
3	C	25	18 (72)	7 (28)
4	D	25	13 (52)	12 (48)
	All	100	64 (64)	36 (36)

S.No.	Category	No.	Poor Economic condition	Fear of Teacher	No interest	Poor Academic performance
1	A	25	16 (64)	3 (12)	3 (12)	3 (12)
2	B	25	24 (96)	1 (4)	--	--
3	C	25	21 (84)	2 (8)	2 (8)	--
4	D	25	25 (100)	--	--	--
	ALL	100	86 (86)	6 (6)	5 (5)	3 (3)

S.No.	Category	No.	Learning	Earning	Learning/ Earning
1	A	25	20 (80)	-	5 (20)
2	B	25	-	25 (100)	-
3	C	25	-	25 (100)	-
4	D	25	-	25 (100)	-
	All	100	20 (20)	75 (75)	5 (5)

S.No.	Category	No.	1-5 hours daily	6-10 hours daily	11-15 daily
1	A	25	3 (12)	2 (8)	20 (80)
2	B	25	1 (4)	15 (60)	9 (36)
3	C	25	1 (4)	--	24 (96)
4	D	25	2 (8)	7 (8)

S.No	Category	No.	Formal		Informal
S.No	Category	No.	Primary	Middle		Religious
1	A	23	14 (60.87)	9 (39.13)	-
2	B	10	10 (100)	-	-
3	C	18	13 (72.22)	5 (27.78)	-
4	D	13	10 (76.92)	-	3 (23.07)
	All	64	47 (73.43)	14 (21.87)	3 (4.68)