The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Labour Department on Thursday has launched its first ever Child Labour Survey 2022-23 conducted across all districts of the province including the newly merged districts in a ceremony held here at a local hotel. KP Child Labour Survey 2022-23 is the second provincial survey in Pakistan, after Punjab, it was said during the event attended by the officials of various government departments, representatives of UN agencies, civil society organizations, donor agencies and academia.
This survey collected data from 49,734 households including 5,976 urban and 43,758 rural, achieving a response rate of 92.5 percent despite harsh weather and security challenges, especially in the Newly Merged Districts. According to the survey report, the child population of age between 5 and 17 years is approximately 8.28m in the province, adding that 11.1 percent of them are working children; of which 80 percent are in child labour while 73.8 percent of them are working in hazardous conditions.
Referring to the population from 14 – 17 years, it said that 21.6 percent were working children and 15.5 percent were in child labour or hazardous work respectively. The report revealed that the major four industries for child labour included agriculture, forestry and fishing at 51.6 percent; water collection at 19.1 percent; wholesale and retail trade at 9.7 percent and manufacturing at 7.7 percent.
The causes of children being in labour are multi-dimensional, it said adding that these include, head of household having no or primary education only 44.7 percent, household being in the poorest wealth condition 31.8 percent, household being the beneficiary of BISP’s assistance 26.3 percent, migration of the head of household 14.6percent, and household losing at least one parent 6.6 percent.
The KP-CLS report also provided a detailed analysis of the effects of child labour on children which include physical and psychological effects, limiting their equitable opportunities to be fully educated, abuse at work places, economic exploitation and health consequences, etc. It said child labour has been historically a huge issue with negative consequences on the development and well being of children.—APP
