Despite Pakistan being a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - making it mandatory for the state to provide children basic rights such as education, health, safety and security - statistical data show that many children in the country continue to be left out, with many Pakistani children contributing to the country's workforce as underaged labourers. The last survey on child labour conducted in 1996 revealed that there were 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan, out of which 2.4 million (73 per cent) were boys and 0.9 million (27 per cent) were girls, according to a 2010 report in Pakistan's Express Tribune. Current estimates on the actual total number of working children in Pakistan is unreliable and varies widely, and is probably between 2 and 19 million. – Photos and text by AFP