Factors that generate child labor

The factors that generate child labor within Pakistan are parental poverty and illiteracy; an irresponsible political system; social and economic pressures; lack of education. Social attitudes in Pakistan due to which a child is considered an adult at quiet an early stage due to biological changes, also are a cause of exploitation of children below 18 years. Poverty is a major social issue within Pakistan and as a result children are made to work in various industries in order to support their financially poor parents. The status of the family directly influences the choices available to a child and obviously if a family is extremely poor with comparatively less resources then consequently each member but it a child or an adult will be required to work and bring in money in order to survive. The economic and family status in the rural areas of Pakistan is quite low and as a result children are forced to work in various manufacturing and tertiary industries and are also over-exploited 61.2% of Pakistanis are illiterate and poor education resulting in limited exposure to human rights is a major cause of child labor. Education is a sociological variable and is of extreme importance because it emancipates a person from the grip of ignorance. However, most people in the rural areas have no access to educational institutions and thus a child learns the tricks of trade from his father and instead of gaining education he chooses to work as a laborer or is at times forced by parents’ due to their own lack of basic knowledge. Pakistan does not have sound educational system under which a child can be adequately socialized into becoming a productive member of society. Education is not treated as a priority and inevitably child exploitation continues within our nation. Girls and boys are forced to work as domestic servants in the homes of the upper middle class or the richer elite. Thus class divisions become more prominent with the exploitation of the poor by the rich and this leads to an inequitable distribution of wealth and income. Pakistan is going through a serious social stratification problem and the rich countries to get richer whereas the poor continues to get poorer. Girls are exploited within the rich households, are paid less and are often physically harassed by the male owners. This leads to further sex and gender related issues and thus child labor needs to be strongly curtailed. Pakistan needs a strong government and political structure to address the issue of child labor. However, President Musharraf’s government is a military dictatorship which considers a nuclear program a priority but banning child labor is not a serious issue for them. There are loopholes in the political structure of Pakistan and a weak government is a main cause of the denial of rights of the citizens of a country. Therefore children’s rights are largely ignored and deliberately avoided. For a positive change a democracy is needed which will fight against child labor through reformative action and laws and regulations. In Pakistan 7% of children working suffer from health problems and are physically abused as well by their owners. These are all structural problems within the social agencies of Pakistan which only accelerate the rate of child labor but also set a precedent for other developing nations to follow.