Abstract:
Federal Minister for Labour Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis,
Omar Asghar Khan has announced the draft of the labour policy. The policy
focuses on the law to eliminate child labour in the country. According to
the Minister the law would be implemented from January 2001 and before
the year 2005 there would be no child or bonded labour in Pakistan.
Moreover, Under ILO obligation Pakistan has to achieve the objective of
elimination of child and bonded labour by the year 2005. ILO plans to
impose sanctions on the exports of those countries where child and bonded
labour continues. Furthermore, the country has to abide with the
convention of the International Labour Organization as a member of this
club1.
Most of the studies about child labour in Pakistan are based on
micro-data. The present study/survey is another addition to the previous
studies with some additional variables. The focus of the study is socioeconomic
aspects of child labour in auto-workshops, as 18 per cent of child
labour is engaged in this establishment2. Some comparisons between the
conclusions of the present survey and that of the previous ones have also
been made. On the basis, policy recommendations have also been proposed.