Islamabad, June 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) Every fourth household in Pakistan's Islamabad has a child as domestic worker as the implementation of the legislation on child domestic labour remains far from satisfactory, local media reported.
Executive Director of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc), Asiya Arif, made these remarks during an event organised by Sparc in collaboration with the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) to mark the World Day Against Child Labour 2026, Pakistan-based daily Dawn reported.
She underscored the need to have collective red card against child labour and called for addressing the issue across several sectors like supply chains, hotels, automobile workshops and the brick kiln industry.
She called for making coordinated and sustained efforts through strong implementation mechanisms, increased social protection, and access to quality education as per the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Article 16 of the Constitution.
She said that Pakistan's Education Ministry has recently revealed that 26.2 million children are out of school.
Parliamentary Caucus on Child Rights (PCCR) convenor Nikhat Shakeel Khan stressed that ending child labour requires coordinated action across all sectors, including government, civil society, the private sector, and communities, and addressing root causes of the issue like poverty, lack of access to quality education, and weak social protection systems, Dawn reported.
Member of Pakistan's National Assembly Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro emphasised the need to have stronger child protection mechanisms and rigorous implementation of existing laws for eliminating child labour.
She said that children must be provided safe environments and meaningful access to education instead of being forced to work due to economic problems.
Earlier in February, Pakistan's Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training in its 'Girls' Education Statistics and Trends Report 2023-24' revealed that 26.2 million children, including 3.4 million girls, in Pakistan still remain out of school.
The report also revealed the funding issues, stressing that Pakistan education financing had weakened with the national education share reducing from 13 per cent to 11 per cent and majority of provinces reducing fundings, especially Punjab and Sindh, Dawn reported.
According to the report, 19 per cent of schools were equipped with digital tools. In addition, 23 per cent of schools have installed ramps for specially-abled students, however, schools do not have adequate specialised assistive learning materials.
"Overall, provinces demonstrated reasonable execution capacity, but declining prioritisation of education remains a key concern", it mentioned revealing a shift in Pakistan's educational landscape.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz