Child Abuse and Child labor

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ahmed Ali Khan on October 27, 2008 at 4:37pm

Up to 275 million witness domestic abuse annually.

Up to 53,000 children are murdered worldwide each year.

Between 80 and 93 per cent of children suffer some form of physical punishment in their homes; a third are punished using implements.

In 2002, the WHO estimated that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced some form of forced sexual intercourse or violence.

218 million children worldwide are labourers, 126 million of whom work in hazardous environments.

1.8 million are involved in prostitution or pornography and 1.2 million have been trafficked

Eight million worldwide are in residential care.

There are 250,000 child soldiers in the world.

Permalink Reply by Ahmed Ali Khan on August 13, 2009 at 6:25pm

Demography


* - Total population (millions), 2004: 158 (i)
* - Annual population growth rate (%), 2005/15:1.9 (i)
* - Population under age 15 (% of total), 2005:37.2 (i)
* - Urban population (% of total), 2005:34.9 (i)
* - Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births), 2005:99 (i)

Education


* - Youth literacy rate (%, age 15-24), 1995-2005:65.1 (i)
* - Female youth literacy rate (%, age 15-24), 2005:53.1 (i)
* - Primary school enrolment ratio (gross), 2000-2007: Male 74/Female 57 (ii)
* - Secondary school enrolment ration (gross),2000-2007:: Male 34/Female 26 (ii)
* - Net primary school attendance, 2000-2007: (%): Male 60/Female 51 (ii)

Economy


* - GDP/capita (PPP US$), 2005:2,370 (i)
* - Unemployment rate (% of labour force), 2005:7.7 (i)
* - Population living below $2 a day (%), 1990/05:73.6 (i)

Source:
(i) Human Development Report 2007-08
(ii) UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children 2009

Permalink Reply by Ahmed Ali Khan on August 13, 2009 at 6:26pm

Child labour situation

The National Child Labour survey ( 1 ), conducted in 1996 by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, found 3.3 million of the 40 million children (in the 5-14 years age group) to be economically active ( 2 ) on a full-time basis. Of the 3.3 million working children, 73 per cent (2.4 million) were boys and 27 per cent (0.9 million), girls. Children's contribution to work in rural areas is about eight times greater than in urban areas. The number of economically active children in the 10-14 years age group is more than four times the children in the 5-9 years age group.

Rural children are mostly engaged in the agricultural sector (74 per cent), whereas in urban areas, most working children (31 per cent) are engaged in the manufacturing sector. In both areas, the percentage of girls working in manufacturing and services is higher than that of boys; this indicates that girls are more likely to work in the manufacturing and services sectors as compared to boys. It is also observed that in the non-agricultural sectors, most of the working children (93 per cent) are engaged in informal activities.

A considerable proportion of the working children in the 5-14 years age group (46 per cent) are working more than the normal working hours, i.e. 35 hours per week, with 13 per cent working 56 hours or more per week. In urban areas, 73 per cent of the working children work more than the normal working hours, which is significantly higher than in rural areas (42 per cent). This shows that working conditions are generally worse in urban areas.

According to survey findings, the major factors responsible for child labour were:

* Large population with high population growth rate;
* Almost three-fourths (70 per cent) of the total population living in rural areas, with subsistence agricultural activities;
* Low productivity and prevalence of poverty;
* Unpaid family helpers, especially in agricultural activities;
* Discriminating social attitude towards girls and women;
* Inadequate educational facilities.


Working children come from large families in the low-income bracket. The average household size of working children was found to be eight members, which is higher than the national average. A higher proportion of economically active girls falls under households with nine plus members. The survey indicates that the most cogent reasons given by parents/guardians for letting their child work are to assist in house enterprise (69 per cent), and to supplement the household income (28 per cent). The former is pronounced in rural households, whereas the latter is more significant in urban families.

One-third of the working children are literate, which shows that mere completion of primary education is not an effective deterrent to child labour. School enrolment indicates that economically active children who are not enrolled in school (34.2 per cent) are higher than economically active children combined with school (13.2 per cent). This shows that enrolment is negatively correlated with the involvement of children in economic activity. Education attainment is low because of limited opportunities resulting from inaccessibility of schools; inability of parents to afford schooling costs; irrelevance of school curriculum to real needs, and restrictions on girls' mobility in certain parts of the country.

Permalink Reply by Ahmed Ali Khan on August 13, 2009 at 6:27pm

“Child Labour” is generally speaking work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally or blocking access to education),
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF) defines “child” as anyone below the age of 18, and “child Labour” as some type of work performed by children below age 18. (UNICEF)
Child Labour is an important and a serious global issue through which all and sundry countries of the world are directly or indirectly affected, but, it is very common in Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to some, in several Asian countries’ 1/10 manpower consists of child Labour. In India the number of children between the ages of 10-14 has crossed above 44 million, in Pakistan this number is from 8 to 10 million, in Bangladesh 8-12 million, in Brazil 7 million, whereas their number is 12 million in Nigeria.

In Pakistan children aged 5-14 are above 40 million.During the last year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics released the results of its survey funded by ILO’s IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour). The findings were that 3.8 million children age group of 5-14 years are working in Pakistan out of total 40 million children in this age group; fifty percent of these economically active children are in age group of 5 to 9 years. Even out of these 3.8 million economically active children, 2.7 million were claimed to be working in the agriculture sector. Two million and four hundred thousand (73%) of them were said to be boys.