perpective-child labour

perspective-child domestic labour

Permitted age for employment of children as domestic workers

Do you know what the minimum age is for children in the different provinces of Pakistan to be employed as domestic workers? Child labour is a provincial subject in Pakistan after the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved the issue of labour and employment to the provinces and each province is now responsible for enacting and…

Ghost Schools

KARACHI: Apropos the letter “Ghost Teachers” published on September 19, 2024, the issue of ghost schools is another sad reality in Pakistan’s education system. These schools exist only in name, with buildings left abandoned and teachers still collecting salaries without fulfilling their responsibilities. However, the problem goes beyond just missing…

Little Ones at Work

It is deeply unfortunate that millions of Pakistani children endure poverty and…

A solution for millions of out-of-school children?

According to a UNICEF report, around 22.8 million children between the ages of…

For Distressed Children, Railway Stations Become a Refuge

LAHORE: Railway stations across Pakistan are increasingly becoming refuge points for children fleeing troubled homes, as poverty, domestic tensions, corporal punishment, and the influence of social media push minors onto the streets. According to official data shared by Pakistan Railways Police, 658 children, including 413 boys and 245 girls, were…

Beyond the CRC review

Pakistan’s sixth and seventh periodic review before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), held in Geneva on January 15-16, 2026, marked an important moment of reflection and accountability, examining progress made since the previous review in 2016. More than a formal reporting obligation, the review…

Stray Dogs, Unsafe Streets, and Forgotten Children

A few days ago, I watched a boy no older than 10 or 12 dragging a sack of garbage larger than his own body. He was doing what thousands of children across Pakistan do every day, collecting recyclable waste to earn a living. Suddenly, several street dogs began barking. Moments…

Golden Children

On the global stage, human statues are performance artists who usually stand motionless at city centres for purposes of arts and entertainment. But this trend, cloaked under the guise of street performance, has been exported to Pakistan and particularly Karachi in borderline abusive conditions. At various junctions across the city,…

Ghost Commitments: Pakistan’s Child Rights Crisis

This year on Universal Children’s Day, as Pakistan prepares for its 2025 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, I’m forced to reflect on a 35-year-old promise. In 1990, Pakistan was one of the six initiators of the World Summit for Children, a champion for the…

For the Children

WORLD Children’s Day is upon us, yet countless children are denied even simple rights that should never be in question. This year’s call to “listen to children and stand up for their rights” feels painfully apt. Millions of children wake up each day to fear and uncertainty. In conflict zones,…

Invisible Childhood

THE world rightly sees child domestic workers as modern slaves, while domestic labour is categorised as informal work, or invisible labour. In July 2022, a qualitative study by the International Labour Organisation revealed that one in every four Pakistani households employs a minor, showing a predominance of girls from 10…

Futures Snatched By Force Of Faith

The concerns regarding forced conversion are not a new phenomenon in our part of the world. Almost a century ago the All India Muslim League chalked out the rules for conversion in this region. The All India Muslim League adopted a resolution in December, 1927 at Calcutta which addressed the…

Bonded Labour

Policymakers in Pakistan appear to be in a deep slumber, unmoved by one of the most pressing human rights crises festering within the country. A new study launched last week by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), titled ‘Unveiling Exploitation and Abuse in the Brick Kilns of Punjab’, lays…

The Children We Sacrifice

Pakistani children aren’t safe. That’s not opinion or exaggeration. It’s the bleak, burning truth we keep looking away from. They’re ignored, exploited, brutalised and abandoned on every possible front. But don’t think for a second the numbers in this piece tell the whole story. For every reported case, dozens vanish…