POSITION PAPER Essays - Economy, Child Labour, Childhood

POSITION PAPER Essays - Economy, Child Labour, Childhood POSITION PAPER Committee: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Country: Pakistan Topic I I : Combating Child Labour in Developing Countries Unfortunately Pakistan states that its poverty has been identified as the root cause of child labour by various studies. In spite of its susceptibility to various health outcomes, the child labourers are reluctant to utilise the available health services. Reasons include monetary, long waiting time and attitude of the health providers. Provision of education, especially female education, along with work and infrastructure investment in basic amenities have been suggested as possible interventions. Pakistan records itself among the countries with a high prevalence of child labour and low rates of school participation particularly for girls. Pakistan's school attendance rate is lower than many of its South Asian neighbours. The most recent International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, based on the national Labour Force Survey 2010-2011 and revealed in the latest publication titled Understanding Children's Work (UCW) in South Asia indicate that 5.7 million 10-17-year-olds, representing almost 20% of all children in the age group, are labourers, with more than two-thirds of those engaged within the agricultural sector in Pakistan. A similar proportion are in unpaid family work. Of the 15-17 year age group, 13.5% are engaged in hazardous work. Children, especially girls, are employed as domestic servants and may be subjected to extreme abuse. Non-state groups kidnap children or coerce parents into giving away their children to spy, fight, or die in suicide atta cks . These children are subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological abuse . Pakistan states that no child would want to face the extremities of child labour in such places but they are left with no other option. The reasons for this type of obligation upon oneself are along the lines of leaving home included; poverty, peers/friends influence and violence, behaviour of the parents, and drug addiction. These children and youths were mostly part of a group that Pakistan was highly dependant on for future generation build. While investigating the criminal record of the street children, it was found that the majority had an arrest record (51.7%). Most (78.1%) were illiterate and only a small proportion knew some type of technical work (14.1%). The major source of income was cleaning/washing cars (39.4%), followed by garbage collection/scavenging (23.1%), begging (11.5%), working in hotels/shops as labourers (7.6%). In order to improve the condition of child labour, a multi-pronged strategy is required. Action at various fronts may include poverty alleviation, ensuring the provision of education especially to female children, establishment of codes of conduct and standards for child labour, involvement of trade unions, corporate social responsibility, legal protection, services provision for rehabilitation of child labour, advocacy involving all stakeholders, appropriate data collection and monitoring along with capacity-building of relevant public or private organisat ions, and action-based research is something that Pakistan as a country hopes to have it achieved. In 2013, Pakistan made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour . Provincial governments of the delegation finalized national plans of action on child labour and bonded labour . In Punjab, District Vigilance Committees were re-established to combat bonded labour , including bonded labour of children. The Federal Investigation Agency also improved coordination among law enforcement groups to better track human traffickers and took action against officials complicit in human trafficking as Pakistan had started its patrolling . Interventions for improving the current situation of child labour in Karachi are being carried out by both private and public organisations in Karachi. At the government level, particularly noteworthy are countrywide centres for working children rehabilitation, established in 1995 with the name of National Centre for Rehabilitation of Child Labour (NCsRCL) by the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, whic h is a welfare found created throng by the government in 1991. These centres are working for the rehabilitation of those children, who are removed from labour work due to the involvement in hazardous occupation. However, proper maintenance and record-keeping need to be promoted at these centres. The delegation of Pakistan has v arious private organisations that have established some drop-in centres which provide basic health and education facilities for children, including primary healthcare, washing and bathing, provision of food and medications, vocational trainings