Labour

• Current Projects
• Earlier Projects

Current Projects

1. Impact Assessment of ILO’s Time Bound Program on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Pakistan

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Methodology
• Duration

Introduction

Child labor is a grave negation of human dignity. It deprives children of their unalienable right to education, health and a carefree childhood. Recognizing the need to end the worst prevailing forms of child labor in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan ratified the ILO Convention 182 in 2001 and subsequently requested ILO for technical assistance. ILO accepted the request of Government of Pakistan and started the ‘Time Bound Programme on the Elimination of Worst forms of Child Labor in Pakistan’ to help the government in fulfilling its international commitment under the convention in September 2003.

The project has worked at both policy and grass-roots level, in close collaboration with the federal, provincial and district level governments, employers, workers and civil society organizations. At the policy level, the project was to assist the government to formulate the National Time Bound Program (2008-2016) which provides the road map for eliminating hazardous child labor from Pakistan in a time-bound manner. At the grass-roots level, the project is instrumental in changing the lives of child laborers through the provision of various social protection interventions tailor-made to cater to the specific needs of children and their families. The project operates in six targeted hazardous sectors, i.e., surgical instrument manufacturing sector in Sialkot district, leather tanneries in Kasur district, coal mines in Shangla district, deep sea fishing in Gwadar district, rag picking in Rawalpindi/Islamabad and glass bangle industry in Hyderabad district. The main activities of the project include social mobilization, awareness raising, capacity building, providing non-formal education, mainstreaming NFE graduates into formal education, providing older child laborers with vocational skills training, linking families with microfinance providers, and assisting vocational training graduates in finding non-hazardous jobs in the local market. The project also carried out certain upstream activities at the district level, particularly with various district-based line agencies in providing technical advice and guidance for the formulation of district education plans, and setting up of the Child Labour Monitoring Systems.

Objectives

SDPI’s study aims to:

Measure the impact of ILO-IPEC interventions on rag pickers and their families in Rawalpinidi/Islamabad.

Provide a snapshot of change in the lives of the beneficiaries before and after the TBP interventions.

Methodology

To achieve the desired objectives outlined above, a survey shall be carried out based on Tracer Methodology introduced by ILO to gather primary data from the beneficiaries and their families from Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The important aspects which will be studied to determine change in the lives of beneficiaries include (i) Education, (ii) Employment, (iii) Economic well being, (iv) Health and (v) Attitudes. Education and employment are the areas of core importance. Indicators shall be devised for each of five areas. 

Duration:
June-August 2008

Earlier Projects

1. Bonded Child Labour in Pakistan

Objectives:

• To identify the local sectors in which children are in bonded labour,
• To understand the mechanisms that draw them into it and the constraints weighing on the children,
• To describe the characteristics of their condition.

The study explored the prevalence of bondage in agriculture and the domestice work sector. Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Hyderabad were the field research areas for this study.