CHILD labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood and interferes with their ability to attend regular school – something that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.

This practice is considered exploitative by many international organisations. Legislation across the world prohibits child labour. However, these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties or supervised training. Across the world agriculture is the largest employer of child labourers. The large number of child labourers is found in rural settings and informal urban economy where children are predominantly employed by their parents rather than factories.

Poverty and lack of schools are considered the primary cause of child labour. For impoverished households, the income from a child’s work is usually crucial for his or her survival or for that of the household.

Unfortunately, children work because they have to.

Moeen Akhtar Muhammadi
Sukkur

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2019