Child labour and the role of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal.

This study was conducted on the project titled, “Child Labour in Pakistan and the Role of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal”. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of political and economic instability on the National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child Labour. These National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child Labour are supervised by the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. The paper also elucidates whether or not these National Centres can help curtail the problem of child labour or not. The paper sets out to explore, inter alia, the policy implications of the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. It sets out guidelines and recommendations that can help improve the efficiency and implementation of the policies that are in place to combat child labour. The data has been collected over a time span of thirteen years (1995-2008). The variables have been considered to check for the effectiveness of safety nets in combating child labour. Regressions have been run in order to check for the efficiency measures.

The results are unequivocal that there has been a marked improvement over the years. Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal has been considerably successful in curbing child labour. However, the study reveals that there is still room for improvement. The same can only be achieved if broad surveys are conducted by the government, tailor-made educational and awareness programs are introduced and a more transparency is introduced in implementation of policies.

Child labour is an evil that gnaws at the very roots of the society and that is why it is all the more important to combat it at every corner to make our country a better place for posterity

• Keywords: Bait-ul-Mal, Child Labour, Treasury, Rehabilitation of Child Labour, Education, Political, Economic Impact, Performance, Pakistan

Introduction

A child anywhere in the world has the God given right to be protected, nourished, loved and cared for but unfortunately the real picture is a harrowing blend of child slavery, labour and abuse. The focus of this study is, however limited to child labour. Child labour broadly defines children under twelve years of age who work on a regular basis for which they are paid or whose output is destined for the market. Child labour has been part of our society since the eighteenth century. It gained momentum during the Industrial Revolution and is mostly associated with the Third World countries. Although the process of globalization has called for measures to curb this evil, it is still prevalent around the world especially in South Asia.

The evil of child labour is rampant due to certain core factors such as failure of the educational system, the objectives of households to maximize present income etc. However, it is undeniable that the major factor is abject poverty which compels people to have large families and make them go out and earn their own livelihood. Since Asia contains the largest pool of child workers, it has all the same compelled it to pay special attention to its causes and consequences. Pakistan is one such country facing this problem and has actually charted out steps to tackle this problem. A distinguishing feature of child workers in Pakistan is that a large number of them are child domestic workers. These include children working as child minders, maids, cooks, cleaners, gardeners and general house-helps.

This study will be focusing on the measures and steps taken by the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) in combating this problem in the past years. Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal is one institution that is working earnestly to tackle this problem and has been able to control it to a certain extent. PBM was established in February 1992 under the provisions of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal Act 1991 mainly to provide assistance to those in need and who are not covered by Zakat. It is administered by an autonomous board of management consisting of the chairman, five non-official and three official members. PBM has established more than thirty rehabilitation centres throughout the country to educate children withdrawn from work. Despite the limited capacity of these centres/schools they are playing an important role in the withdrawal and rehabilitation of children in labour.

Extensive legislation has been done all over the world to combat child slavery. Same has been the case in Pakistan where laws have been adopted and amended to facilitate the obviation of child slavery. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 20th of November, 1989. The scale of this convention extends to persons up to the age of 18. Pakistan ratified this Convention in 1990 to become a part of the global effort in combating child labour. Article 32 of Convention of the Rights of the Child reads:

"State Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development".

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm with which these laws were adopted did not channel into actual output. Recent studies have not been conducted into the incidence of child labour and the impact the legislation for fighting child labour over the decades has not been properly assessed. However it is no hidden fact that child labour is still rampant in Pakistan.

The PBM primarily provides grant to NGO’s engaged in welfare projects under different strategies. National centres(s) for rehabilitation of child labour have been established country wide since 1995. The basic objectives of this centre is to wean away children from the hazardous child labour environment, impart primary education to them in conducive class room environments and afford opportunities for secondary and higher education to bring them into the mainstream of social milieu.

• This research sets out to explore various activities envisaged by the PBM to eradicate child labour such as:
• Awareness raising
• Withdrawal of children from exploitive labour and rehabilitation through education and vocational training
• Community mobilization
• Situation Analysis
• Development of database on child labour
• Law enforcement
• Establishment of multipurpose complexes for vulnerable children drawn from work
• Empowerment of families and

Poverty alleviation.

Apart from this, the study also sets out to highlight the steps that need be taken in near future. In doing so, the study will present a road map that may be taken up by the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal in solving this problem. In general this article will focus on what has been done and what can be done for child labour rehabilitation in Pakistan.

Review of Literature

A number of studies have been undertaken to thrash out its causes and effects and prescribe certain measures to combat this evil. Some of these studies have been carried out in Pakistan but most of them have been carried out in the developed countries. A brief outline of these studies and their implications are given below.

Suvarchala, (1992) studied the problem in an international perspective and elucidated on the legislative problem pertaining to the developing economies. The study highlighted that the child labour cannot be abolished in the developing economies, but instead, it can only be regulated as ‘large number of families are dependent upon this prevailing evil’.

Pierik and Houwerzijl (2006), lodged an enquiry and underlined the problem of child labour in the developing countries and concluded that it was due to the advent of globalization. The researchers discussed the policies formulated by the first world and their application in the third world in context of their appropriateness .They concluded that implementing western policies in the third world was not entirely efficient, and banning the products produced by child labor may prove counterproductive.. The problem of child labour, in their opinion, could be reduced by collaborative measures. The study stressed on addressing the issue of global poverty in order to reduce child labor worldwide.

Bhalotra (2006) examined whether the child labour is compelled by poverty or not. The findings suggested that it was a work ethic problem as boys do tend to work in order to curtail the poverty compulsions. It found that the evidence for female child laborers remained ambiguous. A gender specific regression model was created for each regression. The results interpreted that the problem of female child labourers had significant relation with education as females are not sensitive to education. Finally, the study stressed upon the fact that if the return on education is increased this would help in instilling an education seeking attitude among the female child labour.

These are just some of the studies that amply outline the objectives, as well as, the constraints on mitigation of child labor globally. These studies also highlight the glaring fact that child labor is a global evil with almost the same roots and consequences and hence it would not be unwise to look at the countries which have successfully combated child labor and have designed legislated and implemented projects to achieve satisfactory results. The same was the context of the work being reported here. Moreover, this work was due as no work seems to have been reported in literature.

Goal and Objectives of Research

The goal of research undertaken here was the assessment of the performance and the effectiveness of the National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child Labour (NCRCLs) with PBM support and for successful implementation of the child labour laws in Pakistan.

• The objectives of the research were as follows:

Assessment of the proposed schemes whether they are successful or not.

Examination of extreme paradigms to know whether an outright ban on child labor would be an effective policy tool.

• Identification of core problems to highlight the role of PBM regarding its expenditure and donation to different National Centers

Assessment of the centers whether these have been successful in raising the required finance to fight the problem.

Research Methodology

Multiple research techniques were used which required a well defined theoretical framework and both primary and secondary data.

• 5.1 Theoretical Framework

In order to assess the growth of NCRCLs, relationship between the former and the political, economic and social stability of the government was studied by regression analysis. Thus the growth of the NCRCLs was defined as dependant variable and latter were defined as the independent variables. The timeframe was from the establishment of NCRCLs to the year of enquiry i.e.1995- 2007 and their growth relating to the growth of the country’s economy per year.

The study tends to highlight a descriptive study on how political repression and economic stability can increase the effectiveness of safety nets such as PBM. Thus NCRCLs were defined as dependent Variable while political and economic repressions were defined as independent variables.

• The equation for the Multiple Linear Regression was:
• Number of NCRCLs= α+ βPolitical repression+γEconomic repression
• Hypothesis 1

Ho= The NCRCLs are not affected by political activity.

H1≠ The NCRCLs are affected by political activity.

• Hypothesis 2

Ho= The NCRCLs are not affected by economic activity.

H1≠ The NCRCLs are affected by economic activity.

Similarly, it may be statistically checked whether or not the presence or creation of NCRCLs, safety nets of the Government are efficient in reducing child labour. Data of the last thirteen years has been considered to this end. Here the dependent variable was the Child Labour while independent variables were Number of students and number of NCRCLs

• The equation to be tested for this regression is:
• Child Labour= ∝+βNo.of Students+γ(No.of NCRCLs)
• Hypothesis 3

H0= Increase in the Number of students enrolled in NCRCLs cannot help reduce child labour.

H1≠ Increase in the Number of students enrolled in NCRCLs can help reduce child labour.

• Hypothesis 4

H0= Increase in the Number of NCRCLs cannot help reduce child labour.

H1≠ Increase in the Number of NCRCLs can help reduce child labour.

• 5.2 Secondary Data

The secondary data were collected from different government statistics institutions and from Statistics Section of Bait-ul-Mal itself. The statistics procured form the PBM and other institutions was consolidated and verified to check its credibility. Data for the past ten years was obtained from the PBM. Other statistical sources included World Bank reports, newspaper articles, multiple online, commentaries, history, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, textbooks and already existing thesis done on the study of child labour.

• 5.3 Primary Data

The primary data was collected through surveys focused on the administrative staff of the institutions of six National Centres for rehabilitation of child labour whom Bait-ul-Mal provides funding in various forms to gather their views on the performance of the Bait-ul-Mal over the years. Subsequently, the responses of child labourers were gathered. The students included ex-students of the National Centres and the existing students to know PBM’s performance and the efficiency for providing support to the students and their families. Well designed and pre-checked questionnaires were used to get responses which were handed over to the respondents in person. The responses of executives of PBM provided an insight into the performance of the PBM from the National Centres’ point of view while those. from their staff and PBM itself helped provide an in-depth analysis of the working of the institution and its overall efficiency.

The interviews were held in person. Those who could not make themselves available in person were interviewed via telephonic conversation. The surveys contained both structured and unstructured questions (closed ended and open ended). The data were tabulated and analyzed.

• 5.4 Analysis of Data

The data were processed using different statistical software’s; Microsoft Excel and Minitab for tabulation, SPSS, E-views and Stat-graphics for coding and frequency and regression analysis.

Results and Discussion

The results are reported at two levels. At the first level, the information collected through the interviews is reported as descriptive research while at the second the results of the quantitative statistical analysis are reported.

• 6.1 Responses of Administrative Staff

Twelve members of the administrative staff from 6 national centres were asked questions aimed at the performance of PBM. When asked whether the environment was conducive enough to carry out work effectively, the administrative staff gave a 100% positive reply as PBM had created a good and workable environment. When the respondents were asked about their pay scale being satisfactory 75% of the respondents were not satisfied and 25% were so. On scrutiny it was found that it was satisfactory at start but due to the economic instability of the country and the rising standards of living the income received was becoming unsatisfactory. When asked about the ease of doing desk and field jobs and meeting of administrative needs by PBM the reply from all was 100% positive. This showed that the level of communication between PBM and national centres was good. When asked about the facilities being provided in time and the overall experience with the PBM the respondents again gave a 100% positive answer. When asked about the projects being completed well in time, answer was 83.3% positive and 16.7% negative. The delay was due to the fact that children are tough to teach and get along with at their primary level and have to be rehabilitated first before they can be taught; this process is cumbersome and time consuming. In response to the question whether the amount of funds was adequate 75% disagreed and 25% agreed. This revealed that the entire cost of the project was increasing and thus causing a problem for the effective allocation and utilization of funds. When the respondents were asked about the project coordination or independent execution in the national centres, 83.3% replied in positive and 16.7% were not sure about the answer. Further enquiry revealed that they were not sure whether they did know what the overall curriculum was but the uncertainty was there due to different districts having different agendas and those could only be looked at by the PBM. When asked about any improvement they would suggest to the PBM 50% said no improvements were required, 25% said that there was a need for an increase in the pay scale, 8.3% suggested an increase in the budget allocation to the NCRCLs and 16.7% said that the enrolment should be increased, as the schools could accommodate even more students.

• 6.2 Responses of the Ex-Students of National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child Labour

The responses of ex-students against queries about the benefits of the training they had received, in-time provisions of what the students needed, care of all expenses by PBU or spent by themselves, subsistence income given to the parents of the students, their happiness at the education imparted to them and the PBM’s support to them in the matters of further education were 100% positive. This provides evidence that the PBM has been providing adequate support to the current students as well as to the ex-students, who are now in different secondary schools. On questioning about the mode of instruction being satisfactory, the ex-students gave 88% positive and 12% negative reply. Of course, on informal questioning they said that some teachers did not pay full attention. When asked had the training helped them better understand the outside world to interact with it in a better way, 84% said yes while 16% were not sure indicating that the knowledge they had been imparted was satisfactory for them. When the ex-students were questioned as to whether the teachers and the administration were accessible to them at all time 92% replied in positive and 8% said that they were not accessible every time. When asked whose choice was it to continue their education to the secondary level (parents, own choice or both), 44% said that it was their parents choice, 44% said it was their own choice and 12% said that it was a mutual decision. This question was included to estimate the role of parents in their education and elimination of child labour and also to know whether it is the greed of the parents or their will to educate their children. The question was set in their research enquiry by Lopez-Calva and Miyamoto (2004) as whether it was the duty of the parents to educate their child or it was “Filial Obligation”. Their results indicated that individuals faired as “purely self-interested”, and therefore altruism was left out of the study but in fact altruism is quite common in the cultural realm of Pakistan. Therefore, it cannot be excluded from the analysis. The scope of the study revolved around the national centres effectiveness and not around the causes of child labour. Due to time limitations the interviews with the parents were not conducted which could have led to clarifications regarding the question of filial obligations, duty or self-interest on part of the parents or the children. When the ex-students were asked about their views on educating themselves further after the completion of their secondary education, 60% were sure that they would but the 40% were not. On further questioning they replied that they were the breadwinners and the family needed more income for that purpose.

• 6.3 Responses of the Existing Students of National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child labour

When the current students were asked about the incentives being provided to them and the provisions being adequate enough, the respondents gave a 100% positive reply. Their responses when consolidated with the rest indicated that the performance of the PBM was efficient. When they were questioned about their mode of instruction being satisfactory, 78% gave a positive reply while 10% said no and 12% didn’t know. When they were asked whether the traditional skills being taught were helpful or not, 50% gave a positive reply, 30% gave a negative response and 20% did not know. When asked about whether the teachers and administrative staff were friendly and cooperative or not, 70% gave a positive reply while the 30% disagreed. They were further questioned whether environment of the centres were favourable to them to carry out their tasks and work effectively, 48% said that it was good while 52% disagreed. When questioned about the curriculum and the skills they were being taught would help them in the outside world 46% agreed while the 54% were not sure about the education helping them in the outside world. When the students were questioned whether the education standard was the same as the curriculum being taught to other primary education schools, 32% said yes while the 68% were not sure that they were being taught the same course. When asked that the students wanted to educate themselves further after completing their studies in this national centre, 62% said yes, 32% said no and 6% did not know. When the students were asked whether their parents wanted them to continue their education, 72% said yes and 28% said that they did not know. The only problem that could be traced back was whether the parents were forcing their children to work, or the child himself was not yet fully rehabilitated to understand that bonded labour was a danger.

• 6.4 Results of Regression
• Analysis 1

Concluding Remarks

It is no hidden fact that child labour is rampant in Pakistan. It thrives in the province of Punjab. The Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal has been successful in combating child labour to some extent but it has still to go a long way to eradicate child labour. Ample studies have not been conducted and lack of data continues to hide the true picture. Not to mention the fact that a plethora of legislative measures can be taken but they will not help the cause if they are not properly implemented.

First and foremost it is necessary to identify the root and try to uproot the problem with some basic decisive measures which I have broadly divided into five glaring recommendations. These recommendations are as follows:

Proper procedures should be introduced to effectively implement the legislation that has been carried out to eradicate child labour.

These procedures should include but are not limited to better quota allocation, in depth investigations by a child labour task force, reporting any incidence and taking decisive action against it.

• Introducing legislation that levies severe fines and effective punishment on anyone promoting or furthering child labour
• Introduction of third parties and NGOs to fund, implement and further the cause of combating child labour

Household services should be provided to identify the problems plaguing the family. Time frame of studies/data should envisage factors over a minimum five year period to understand the complexities and variables involved in child labour. Actual census data of bonded child labour should be procured and analyzed to curb child labour more effectively.

These are just some of the primary steps that need to be taken to effectively expand the base from where PBM and other representatives who are against child labour can combat the incidence of child labour.

The issue is also one that needs to create awareness amongst the people of our country and sensitize them towards this great evil. For when you send a child to work, you just don’t send him to perform some work in a field or factory. Along with his labour, you murder his dreams, his innocence and his promise of a better future. It is thus our collective responsibility to protect and nourish the soul of the child and give it a better environment for prosperity.

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