BEAUTIFUL KOREAN GIRLS

ALICIA SILVERSTONE

CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN

CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN


God has given human beings the boon of wisdom and discretion to think upon the signs of the universe and to draw conclusions. That is the reason why they disclose the hidden facts of it and its structure and have made remarkable progress in many walks of life. Children are the flowers of heaven. They are the most beautiful and purest creation of God. They are innocent both inwardly and outwardly. No doubt, they are the beauty of this world. Early in the morning when the children put on different kinds of clothes and begin to go to schools for the sake of knowledge, we feel a specific kind of joy through their innocence.

But there are also other children, those who cannot go to schools due to financial problems, they only watch others go to schools and can merely wish to seek knowledge.It is due to many hindrances and difficulties; desperate conditions that they face in life. Having been forced to kill their aspirations, dreams and other wishes, they are pressed to earn a living for themselves and for their families. It is also a fact that there are many children who play a key role in sustaining the economically life of their family without which, their families would not be able to make ends meet. These are also part of our society who have forgotten the pleasures of their childhood. When a child in addition to getting education, earns his livelihood, this act of earning a livelihood is called as child Labour. The concept of child Labour got much attention during the 1990s when European countries announced a ban on the goods of the less-developed countries because of child Labour.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child Labour as:

1- when a child is working during early age
2- he overworks or gives over time to Labour
3- he works due to the psychologically, socially, and materialistic pressure
4- he becomes ready to Labour on a very low pay

Another definition states:

“Child Labour” is generally speaking work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally or blocking access to education),
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF) defines “child” as anyone below the age of 18, and “child Labour” as some type of work performed by children below age 18. (UNICEF)
Child Labour is an important and a serious global issue through which all and sundry countries of the world are directly or indirectly affected, but, it is very common in Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to some, in several Asian countries’ 1/10 manpower consists of child Labour. In India the number of children between the ages of 10-14 has crossed above 44 million, in Pakistan this number is from 8 to 10 million, in Bangladesh 8-12 million, in Brazil 7 million, whereas their number is 12 million in Nigeria.

In Pakistan children aged 5-14 are above 40 million.During the last year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics released the results of its survey funded by ILO’s IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour). The findings were that 3.8 million children age group of 5-14 years are working in Pakistan out of total 40 million children in this age group; fifty percent of these economically active children are in age group of 5 to 9 years. Even out of these 3.8 million economically active children, 2.7 million were claimed to be working in the agriculture sector. Two million and four hundred thousand (73%) of them were said to be boys.

During the year 2001 and 2002 the government of Pakistan carried out a series of consultation of tripartite partners and stakeholders (Labour Department, trade unions, employers and NGOs) in all the provinces. The objective was to identify the occupations and the categories of work, which may be considered as hazardous under the provisions of ILO Convention 182. As a result of these deliberations, a national consensus list of occupations and categories of work was identified, which is given below:

1. Nature of occupation-category of work
2. Work inside under ground mines over ground quarries, including blasting and assisting in blasting
3. Work with power driven cutting machinery like saws, shears, and guillotines, ( Thrashers, fodder cutting machines, also marbles)
4. Work with live electrical wires over 50V.
5. All operation related to leather tanning process e.g. soaking, dehairing, liming chrome tanning, deliming, pickling defleshing, and ink application.
6. Mixing or application or pesticides insecticide/fumigation.
7. Sandblasting and other work involving exposure to free silica.
8. Work with exposure to ALL toxic, explosive and carcinogenic chemicals e.g. asbestos, benzene, ammonia, chlorine, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, caustic soda, phosphorus, benzidene dyes, isocyanides, carbon tetrachloride, carbon disulphide, epoxy, resins, formaldehyde, metal fumes, heavy metals like nickel, mercury chromium, lead, arsenic, beryllium, fiber glass, and
9. Work with exposure to cement dust (cement industry)
10. Work with exposure to coal dust
11. Manufacture and sale of fireworks explosives
12. Work at the sites where Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) are filled in cylinders.
13. Work on glass and metal furnaces
14. Work in the clothe printing, dyeing and finishing sections
15. Work inside sewer pipelines, pits, storage tanks
16. Stone crushing
17. Lifting and carrying of heavy weight specially in transport industry ( 15b kg and above)
18. Work between 10 pm to 8 am ( Hotel Industry)
19. Carpet waving
20. Working 2 meter above the floor
21. All scavenging including hospital waste
22. tobacco process ( including Niswar) and Manufacturing
23. Deep fishing ( commercial fishing/ sea food and fish processing
24. Sheep casing and wool industry
25. Ship breaking
26. Surgical instrument manufacturing specially in vendors workshop
27. Bangles glass, furnaces
Now we can easily imagine in the light of above mentioned facts and figures how the nation’s future namely children are deprived of pleasures of life, ignorance has reduced their abilities of thinking right or differentiating between right and wrong, as well as their life-chances, to their non-access to education. It is true that child Labour is not an isolated phenomenon.

It is an outcome of a multitude of socio-economic factors and has its roots in poverty, lack of opportunities, high rate of population growth, unemployment, uneven distribution of wealth and resources, outdated social customs and norms and plethora of other factors. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) the daily income of 65.5% people of Pakistan is below 2 U.S. dollars a day. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Report, 47 million people in Pakistan are leading lines below the line of poverty, whereas the Social Policy Development Centre (SDPC) Karachi has stated in one of its reports that the ratio of poverty in Pakistan was 33% during 1999 that increased in 2001 and reached 38%. The ratio of poverty in the current year is around 30%.

Consider the point that if 30% of our country’s total population is leading life below the poverty-line wherein the people are deprived of basic necessities of life like clothing, shelter, food, education and medication, the children of these people will be forced to become Labourers or workers in order to survive. Another reason of child Labour in Pakistan is that our people don’t have the security of social life. There is no aid plan or allowance for children in our country. Class-based education system is another reason for increasing child Labour; villages lack standardized education systems and as a result, child Labour is on increase in rural areas. The government has not put its laws into practice to stop child Labour in our country. Employers after exploiting child Labour, extract a large surplus, whereas child Labour, despite increasing poverty, unemployment and other problems, are pressed to do anything and everything for their livelihood and the survival of their families.

Child Labour is a complex problem which demands a range of solutions. There is no better way to prevent child Labour than to make education compulsory. The West understood this a long time ago. Laws were enacted very early to secure continued education for working children; and now they have gone a step forward, and required completion of at least the preliminary education of the child before he or she starts work.

Martin Luther as back far 1524 sent a letter to German Municipalities insisting it was their duty to provide schools, and the duty of parents to educate their children. In Sweden, a royal decree in 1723 instructed parents and guardians to diligently see to it that their children applied themselves to book reading. In Europe, one country after another; Scotland, Prussia (1817), Austria (1869), France, United Kingdom (1880) and Italy made education compulsory. In 1872, Japan became the first non-Western country to make elementary school education compulsory with the declaration by the Meiji Govt.

The present government in Pakistan has made elementary education compulsory. Along with this, the government has distributed free books in primary schools so that parents, who cannot afford their children’s school expenses, send their children to schools. The major point is that this decision must be acted upon at all levels. There is strict need to stop child Labour in this country. Awareness must be raised and the attention of parents ought to be diverted to the education of their children. Child Labour Laws should be put into practice strictly. In addition, the educational system of the country-must be reshaped and restructured according to national development goals. The orphans and other deserving children must be helped financially on a prolonged basis. It is also essential to eliminate child Labour from the country, that the political, economical and social system of the country are need to be reshaped and such steps taken that make child Labour in this country a crime. They should bring on the well-being of a lay man, good governance and end to exploitative thinking. If we succeed to act upon these principles, our country can easily get rid of this problem i.e. child Labour. The agreement that has recently been approved by Pakistan, Norway and ILO to eradicate child Labour must be given importance and we hope that our rulers must put this agreement into practice using all means at their disposal.

Atif Aslam

Atif Aslam عاطف اسلم), born Mohammad Atif Aslam; 12 March 1983 in Wazirabad, Pakistan) is a Pakistani pop singer. He is widely recognized in South Asia and has given several hit songs such as Aadat, Woh Lamhe, Tere Bin, Pehli Nazar Mein, Tera Hone Laga Hoon, Tu Jaane Na, Tere Liye, Meri Kahani and Jalpari. He is best known for his powerful vocal belting technique. In 2008, he was awarded Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan

Early life and education

Atif Aslam was born in 1983 in Wazirabad, Pakistan. His kindergarten started in Model town, Lahore at Kimberley Hall School, where he studied from grade one to three. His first stage performance was in a fancy dress show at his school when he was in first grade, where he performed as Imran Khan (former captain of the Pakistani Cricket Team). Since then cricket was a passion for him. At that time he did not listen to any particular kind of songs.

At the age of 9, he moved to Rawalpindi and studied at Saint Paul's Cambridge School from grade four to eight. He came back to Lahore in 1995 where he continued his studies in Divisional Public School, Model Town, Lahore. He was selected in his school cricket team as a bowler. He cleared his tenth grade at the age of 14 with a distinctive edge of always being the youngest boy in the class because of his double promotions. During that period he put his best efforts into becoming a professional cricketer.^{[citation needed]} He passed out of Divisional Public School after completing his matriculation.

He further continued his education at PAF College, Lahore where he completed his F.Sc (Pre-engineering) with the class of 2001. He used to be the main attack bowler of his college cricket team and represented his college in various other cities and ultimately got selected in under 19 National cricket team of Pakistan. He won his first singing competition on Independence Day celebrations in the college. He then went to the University of Central Punjab and completed his Bachelors in Computer Science.

Music career

Jal

He used to sing at the college canteen when his friends urged him to participate in the singing competition on Independence Day celebrations at PAF College Lahore in 1998. He performed there and won the competition. Thereafter, he also won several other college competitions.

He met Goher- a guitarist who became his future Jal band-mate, at his college. Together they practiced and started doing mini-concerts for their friends. Aslam used to perform on the songs of Junoon and Strings at these concerts. They started performing in their college, McDonalds, Uncle Bubba's Rabba Dabba and other restaurants. Thus began the original line up of Jal.

Jal recorded their first song Aadat at Mekal Hassan's Studio. The song became popular on different musical websites in Pakistan and was also aired on major radio stations of Pakistan like City FM 89, FM 100, Mast FM 103, FM 105 etc. The video for this song was released on ARY Digital and The Musik and then it was played on almost all the channels.

Solo career

Aslam released his first album Jal Pari on 19 July 2004, under Sound Master and IC records. Its promoters declared it to be the best selling album of that year within just 5 months of it's release.^[2]. Besides his native country, he also became popular in India and his career took off to fame in both the countries. In the meantime Atif also cleared his Bachelors in Computer Science (Hons.) from University of Central Punjab. His second album, Doorie was released on 22 December 2006.

His first major concert was at Al Hamra Hall, Mall Road Lahore where he performed during the break of a stage drama Moulin Rouge. On 14 April 2007, Aslam performed in Royal Albert Hall. His first international concert was at W. StarDreamz Entertainment Group during his tour of USA and Canada with RDB and Annie.

Bollywood

Aslam has also sung many songs for Bollywood films, like Pehli Nazar Mein in Race, Bakuda Tum Hi Ho in Kismat Konnection, Tera Hone Laga Hoon and Tu Jaane Na in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, both of which have been well-received by the Indian audience.

His last Indian venture was Prince in which he sang four songs, Tere Liye, Aa Bhi Ja Sanam, Kaun Hoon Main and O Mere Khuda. The songs were composed by musician Sachin Gupta.