Karachi:
An investigation, conducted after 28 years, revealed alarming data that more than 1.6 million children aged 10 to 17 are engaged in different forms of work, many of which are in dangerous and operators, through the Sindh.
The Sindh 2022-2024 Sindh work survey, conducted by the Sindh labor service, with unicef technical assistance and the statistics office, Sindh, revealed that 50.4% of children working between 10 and 17 years old are exposed to dangerous conditions, in particular excessive working hours, extreme weather conditions and dangerous tools and machines.
The director general of labor, Muhammad Ali Shah, who led the project, said that the report had been submitted to the provincial government government. He mentioned a significant decrease in child labor compared to the 1996 national base – almost 50% less – but stressed that the figures are still deeply worrying.
According to results, the school attendance of working children are only 40.6%, unlike 70.5% in non -workers. School participation decreases considerably with age, especially among girls aged 14 to 17, who also provide most of household chores – on average 13.9 hours of domestic work not remunerated per week. This strongly contributes to school abandonment rates.
Data at the district level show large disparities. Qambar Shahdadkot is top of the list with a prevalence of children’s work of 30.8%, followed by Tharparkar at 29%, Tando Muhammad Khan at 20.3%and Shikarpur at 20.2%. Karachi has the lowest rate, at only 2.38%.
The report also establishes a strong correlation between poverty and child labor. In the poorest households, 33.7% said they had at least one child engaged in work.
