The Unseen Victims: How Child Labor Laws Fail and Succeed in Safeguarding Minors in Pakistan

Abstract

Despite comprehensive legal prohibitions, Pakistan continues to grapple with rampant child labor, with an estimated 3.3 million children aged 5-14 engaged in hazardous work (UNICEF, 2022). This study addresses critical research gaps by comparatively analyzing Pakistan's child labor laws against international standards while examining systemic enforcement failures. The central research problem lies in Pakistan's paradoxical compliance with international conventions alongside persistent on-ground violations, particularly in agriculture (71% of child laborers), informal sectors (18%), and domestic work (11%) (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2021). Using a comparative legal doctrinal methodology, this research employs a four-dimensional framework, Evaluating Pakistan's laws against ILO Convention 138 (Minimum Age) and 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labor), revealing gaps in hazardous work definitions and monitoring mechanisms; Contrasting Pakistan's framework with India's Child Labor (Prohibition) Act 2016 and Bangladesh's Labor Act 2006, highlighting Pakistan's weaker inspection regimes; Examining landmark cases (e.g., *SMC No. 1/2014*) showing courts' reluctance to apply international standards directly; Assessing labor inspections (only 12,000 annually for 60M+ minors, PILER 2023) against Brazil's successful Child Labor Eradication Program. Inadequate incorporation of ILO standards into domestic law, provincial disparities in implementing the 18th Constitutional Amendment, and penalties (max. Rs. 50,000 fines) being 83% lower than India's equivalent. The study proposes a Geneva+ Compliance Model, recommending: automatic incorporation of ratified ILO conventions into domestic law, specialized child labor courts, and a biometric age verification system modeled on Indonesia's SIMPATIK platform.

Keywords: Child labor laws, international compliance, comparative legal analysis, enforcement mechanisms, Pakistan, ILO.