Why Child Labor and Trafficking Matter in Pakistan

From the Daily Times
VIEW: Child labour: a threat to the future —Mashal Sahir

If poverty justifies child labour, then it should also justify burglary, prostitution, kidnapping, smuggling and all other crimes. Child labour is a much more serious crime compared to others, because unlike other crimes that affect individuals, child labour affects an entire generation

Child labour is work that is unacceptable because the children involved are either too young or because, even though they have attained the minimum age to take up employment, the work that they do is unsuitable for a person below the age of 18. Child labour is a violation of fundamental human rights and has been shown to hinder children’s development. According to the last available statistics, Pakistan has a total population of 158 million, which includes a total of 40 million children, out of which 3.8 million are the victims of child labour. Many children are victims of the worst forms of child labour, such as bonded labour and slavery, and are easily exploited and abused on account of their vulnerability. It was found that of the total population of child labourers, seven percent suffered from illness or injuries frequently and 28 percent occasionally.

Child labour is not an isolated phenomenon. It is the outcome of a multitude of socio-economic factors and poverty is among its most prominent aspects. In Pakistan, around 30 percent of the people are living below the poverty line. Due to the unfair distribution of income, unemployment and inflation, poor parents are forced to send their children to work for economic reasons. In many cases, poverty has also led to the bonded labour of children. There are specific cases of children being pledged or bonded in return for loans to their parent(s) or guardian, notably in the carpet industry and in agriculture. The way children are absorbed and obliged to work varies but, as a matter of routine, the children of bonded families start working as soon as they reach school age, if not before. According to these parents, their actions are completely justified on account of their poverty. However, if poverty justifies child labour, then it should also justify burglary, prostitution, kidnapping, smuggling and all other crimes. Child labour is a much more serious crime compared to others, because unlike other crimes that affect individuals, child labour affects an entire generation. . .

Natural calamities and crises also play a huge role in giving rise to child labour. The recent floods that hit Pakistan can be seen as a major threat to the future of thousands of children. Once the families that have been displaced by the floods return to their homes, they will encourage their children to go to work and help restore the family. Media reports have indicated that children from the flood-hit regions are being promised lucrative jobs, taken away from their families and then being used for sex work. An increase in child labour was noted after the previous natural calamity — the 2005 earthquake. There are fears that this pattern could be repeated.

The gap between the law and its implementation is a serious problem in Pakistan. According to the Child Labour Law in Pakistan, a child cannot be employed before the age of 15, under any circumstances. Moreover, bonded labour, or ‘debt bondage’ is a practice condemned by the UN as being similar to slavery and consequently a violation of Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is considered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to constitute forced labour and to be a violation of the ILO’s Convention no 29 on forced labour. However, the government has not put its laws into practice to stop child labour and these laws are universally ignored in Pakistan where children aged four to fourteen keep the country’s factories operating, often working in brutal and squalid conditions. . .

The future of Pakistan depends on whether the government chooses to use this recent crisis as a further excuse for spending cuts in key social areas, or whether it seizes the opportunity and mobilises the necessary political will to prioritise the elimination of child labour as a wise investment in future development.

Read the full article here.


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This is a really interesting opinion piece which identifies the reasons why child labor and child trafficking matters in Pakistan (and really everywhere). Child labor in Pakistan largely exists due to poverty but the author also notes the connections between child labor and over-population, quality of education, natural disasters, and problems with law enforcement. In order to fight child labor and trafficking the author suggests the government needs to ensure there is access to quality education, and that there are social protections for poor families.

Perhaps most importantly the author recognizes the connection between healthy, well educated children and the success of a country. When children are unable to attend quality schools they are also unable to learn the skills that would be necessary for improving their family's lives and possibly bringing their family out of poverty. This puts future generations of children at risk for forced and abuse labor.

Ultimately the issue of child labor and trafficking is an issue not only of child psychological and social development, but also of the future economic development and stability of the communities where they live. By turning a blind eye to child labor now, we put future generations at risk for exploitation. At the same time though, without the proper social protections for the poor, many families simply cannot afford to loose the income their children make, however small. This is the conundrum that Pakistan and many developing countries and communities face.

Shoes For Change

From the wtkr.com (Norfolk, VA) website:

'Shoe Revolt' to stomp out child sex trafficking

WTKR-TV3

12:36 PM EDT, June 3, 2010

One woman is taking action to stomp out child sex trafficking - with a shoe revolt.

She's doing it one pair of shoes at a time.

"Every woman loves shoes."

Ateba Crocker will be selling designer shoes to help raise money for a charity she just founded called Shoe Revolt.

Her group will raise money to help shelters and organizations that fight against human sex trafficking in the US.

"Here in the land of the free in the United States of America we have slaves. Sex slaves. And these sex slaves are girls," Crocker said.

The Department of Justice estimates that more than 50,000 women and children become victims of trafficking each year.

They are sold to and raped by men they don't even know.

Ateba says the power to take action to help these victims is right under your feet.

"I'm just asking you to go to your closet and pick out the shoes that are dearest to your heart because those shoes can make an impact in the life of a girl."

So far, Ateba has received donations from super star celebrities, including one very famous fashionista.

"I opened the shoes up and I looked inside the box and it was SJP and I thought who is SJP? Then I saw a little card that said Sarah Jessica Parker and I was like no, uh-uh...I know this isn't...haha!"

That's right - three pairs of autographed shoes from Miss Carrie Bradshaw herself, complete with handwritten cards on Sex and the City stationery.

Starting August 1 anyone will be able to visit the Shoe Revolt website and purchase the shoes and others to help young girls in need - a purchase that Ateba says is priceless.

"I think it gives you greater joy than a pair of shoes."

Bidding on shoes will start August 1, but you may start donating new or gently worn shoes now.

Yet another inspiring example of what one creative person can do to make a difference! To view the video interview, click here. It will be fun to see the shop when it opens on August 1--in the meantime, you can view their website here.

Photo credit: gemgirlart

Trafficking of U.S. Children

From NPR, an advocate and survivor discuss sex trafficking of children within the U.S.:



According to Malika Saada Saar, co-founder of The Rebecca Project for Human Rights, "[T]he venue of Craigslist...is really evolving as almost a virtual slave market in which children are bought and sold over the internet."

Child Trafficking

Introduction: Trafficking in children takes many different forms worldwide, from child soldiers to child sex tourism to forced child labor in brick factories to child camel jockeys to child sex slaves to child pornography to child domestic slaves to forced child begging. Ending child slavery and child exploitation will take committed, strategic effort based on understandings of the myriad forms of child trafficking and their interconnections.

Elise: Before the TVPA was ever enacted in the U.S., a case out of Texas showed the complexity that is often overlooked when we talk about children and trafficking. Given Kachepa, along with other boys from Zambia were brought to the U.S. under false pretenses offered to them by a Baptist minister claiming the young boys would come to the U.S. to perform in a boys choir and earn money for themselves and for a new school in Zambia. The reality the boys faced included forced performances, the withholding food and medical care if the boys resisted and the constant threat of deportation among other coercive and traumatic tactics used by Keith Grimes to keep the boys in their trafficking situation. A more detailed account of the case is given in The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter. Years after his trafficking situation ended, Given has taken to advocating on behalf of trafficking victims. He has appeared on national TV and print media delivering his message and his story, and has contributed to the development of state-level legislation.

Youngbee: Among the many different forms of child trafficking, a particularly terrible kind is child trafficking involving child pornography. In Japan, for instance, Jake Adelstein, a public relations representative in Polaris Project in Japan, describes child pornography as "evidence that a crime has been committed[;] that people can derive sexual pleasure from that or profit on that is horrifying." These children are not only sexually exploited but also their humiliation is likely to be publicized on the internet forever. What is worse is that the internet access makes this evil an average Joe's concern in the United States. In fact, a British internet watchdog says that over the past ten years, 51% of such illegal child pornography websites were hosted in the United States. Currently, in Japan, possession of child pornography is not illegal though distribution and production are criminalized. As Japanese government is sensitive to its reputation before the international world, perhaps, US citizens calling their state representatives would pressure the country to fix its legislative loophole further.

Meg: One child trafficking topic that seems to have received a lot of attention recently is trafficking and international adoptions. The issue came to the forefront after the Haiti disaster, when it became suspected that children disappearing from hospitals were being taken by traffickers and sold off as orphans. Learning about this form of trafficking was disheartening to me, because apparently even those trying to do something positive can inadvertently contribute to child exploitation and human trafficking. Although there does not appear to be much in the way of statistics on this issue yet, it is easy to see how traffickers could exploit situations such as the disaster in Haiti to make a profit off of vulnerable children, not only through international adoption, but for sex trafficking and other forms of trafficking as well. One interesting potential solution to the adoption problem is the idea of using DNA databases to reunify parents with missing children, which is something that has begun to be implemented in Haiti. If the Haiti situation prompts development of an international adoption DNA system that can be used to prevent future trafficking, this may be one positive result of a tragic disaster.

Jenn K.: According to the 2009 Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking report by Shared Hope International, over 100,000 US children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation each year. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice reports that the average age for entering commercial sex in the US is 12-14. Despite progress in addressing this aspect of the United State's trafficking problem, such as programs targeting demand and increased attention to the issue, much remains to be done particularly in terms of services for victims and survivors. According to Gracehaven House, which will be opening a group home for child sex trafficking survivors in Ohio, there are only 39 shelter beds dedicated to minor sex trafficking victims in the US. Other organizations, such as Courtney's House in Washington DC, are also in the process of opening group homes for child victims. Both Gracehaven House and Courtney's House were founded by survivors of sex trafficking as minors, and plan to offer comprehensive services for survivors. Still, the shelter need greatly exceeds and is likely to continue to greatly exceed resources.

NYOF: a nonprofit rescuing Nepalese children as young as 6 from indentured servitude

Thousands of Nepalese girls are sold into indentured slavery for $30 or $40 a year. As heart wrenching as it sounds, the Nepalese government has been reluctant to address such issue. in fact, the higher officials in governments are the ones who buy Nepalese girls from the village for $30 a year.

But there is one organization who's been diligently fighting against the slavery of Nepalese children for the past two decades. Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation(NYOF) is that organization. NYOF was founded in 1990 by Olga Murray, a retired lawyer from San Francisco, California. When she visited Nepal in 1984 and 1987, she has witnessed a terribly impoverished situation of many Nepalese young girls who are sold to slavery for a few dollars. Olga Murray and Gregg Tully, the development director of NYOF explains the efforts and the missions of the organization in this interview.

Q: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE GOALS AND THE MISSION OF NYOF? NYOF’s mission is to transform the lives of impoverished Nepalese children by providing them with what should be every child's birthright – education, housing, medical care, and loving support. NYOF’s goals include eliminating the tradition of selling Nepali girls into bonded servitude, reducing the prevalence of child malnutrition throughout Nepal, and making education more widely available to the most downtrodden children in the country.

Q: TELL US ABOUT THE UNIQUE EFFORTS OF NYOF THAT MAKES IT A PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE MEANS OF RAISING THE AWARENESS OF TRAFFICKING In the areas where we have been working for a number of years, it is now shameful for parents to sell a daughter into labor, whereas, it was a matter of pride for a family to do so prior to our awareness raising campaign effort.

Q: THAT SOUNDS LITTLE BIZARRE TO SOMEONE LIKE ME WHO IS NOT FAMILIAR NEPALESE CULTURE. WHY WOULD ANYONE TAKE PRIDE IN SELLING HIS OR HER CHILDREN? (Olga): This has a historical context. In certain ethnic groups in Nepal, many fathers had been bonded laborers for generations. They lived and worked on the land of others. They were largely paid in crops, so when they needed money for various reasons such as medical care or clothes or a wedding, they borrowed it from the landlord, often at exorbitant rates. They could almost never pay off the debts during their lifetimes, and when they died, their sons were liable for the debt. This practice was made illegal in 2000 and the debts are forgiven. During the time of their bonding, if the landlord wanted a servant, the laborers wife or child were sent ot the landlord's home to work, often without compensation. Or someone who needed a servant would come to the villages to buy the services of daughters for a year. Though bonding service became illegal in 2000 and the government promised to rehabilitate the former bonded laborers, they failed to do so. Most were evicted from the land, they had lived on, and were living in shanties. So, when these freed laborers needed money desperately, they sold the labor of their daughters even more willingly. To them, this was a natural process, and no social stigma was involved in the practice in 2000 when NYOF began our efforts.

(Gregg) The custom of selling daughters into virtual slavery exists in the Tharu ethnic group, which is native to the hot flat parts of Nepal. They are traditionally uneducated farmers. In the past, other ethnic groups moved into Tharu areas, bought the land the Tharu farmed on, and the Tharu became sharecroppers. The prices that the landowners charged the Tharu were exorbitant, and the Tharu soon fell deeply into debts they could never pay. To pay some of the interest on the debts, they would send their daughters to work in the landowner’s houses. This developed into the custom today of Tharu parents selling their daughters to be trafficked all over Nepal, and sometimes into India. Many of the girls are trafficked into prostitution, and have spent so much of their lives as servants that they do not understand that they have the right to refuse to do what people tell them to do.

Q: CAN YOU GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OF YOUR EFFORT TO END TRAFFICKING OR CHILD SLAVERY IN NEPAL? NYOF’s public awareness campaign has been instrumental in the success of the program. NYOF’s staff informs people about the importance of education for girls and the plight of bonded children. As a result, local communities have turned against the bonding tradition, making the impact of the program sustainable. Further, NYOF trains other nongovernmental agencies in its methods, so the program can be replicated.

PBS broadcasted a story on these former domestic servitude victims to advocate for their rights and other Nepalese girls to be freed from their indentured servitude. Their effort of awareness raising not includes Marching on the street with their traditional instruments and a big band and loud singing, but also public speech by the victims crying out for ending the tradition of exploitation as well as a stage play performed on the street by the former victims.

Q: HOW DO YOU SEE NYOF EVOLVE IN THE FUTURE? Year after year, more people are supporting NYOF, even during the recent economic turmoil. NYOF’s programs in Nepal also continue to grow and transform the lives of more children. We are in the process of choosing new projects to expand our impact on the children who comprise the future of Nepal.

Q: HOW MUCH WOULD YOU SAY IT'LL COST FOR A GIRL TO LIVE A MONTH IN NEPAL? Expenses vary a lot in Nepal. The cost of living in the capital city of Kathmandu can be a lot more than in a rural village. But the cost of supporting children in Nepal is far less than in any developed country. NYOF gives college scholarships to impoverished children who do not have families or whose families are utterly unable to support them, and provides all the children’s clothes, food, housing, and health care, for only $750 per child per year! A scholarship for a young child in a rural area whose parents can take care of them and feed them, but don’t have the money for school fees, uniforms, and books, is just $75. For these amounts of money, the urge to help is almost irresistible. (According to PBS, an average Nepalese makes in a village makes $1 a day).

Q: HOW CAN PEOPLE SUPPORT NYOF AND ITS INITIATIVES? I encourage people to visit www.NYOF.org to learn more about NYOF. People who want to support our projects can donate online through our website and they can mail a check to NYOF at 3030 Bridgeway, Suite 123, Sausalito, CA 94965, USA. They may also contact us at info@nyof.org or 1-866-FOR-NYOF to discuss other ways to contribute.

NYOF is close to eradicating slavery in one ethnic village. But they have four more villages to reach out for further endings of slavery of Nepalese daughters. Development , regardless of culture and geographical locations, is certainly a long and difficult process to implement. One former UN senior official once said that one is lucky if he or she can change a traditional practice (such as indentured servitude in Nepal) in a decade or two. If this is hard to understand, look at the post-communism countries, for instance. Many have failed to completely step away from their communism culture even after two decades or so. In this respect, NYOF's success in eradicating slavery in a district just in two decades is not something to be overlooked. For more information on NYOF, visit www.NYOF.org.