Children of a lesser god By Tazeen Javed.
Children of a lesser god By Tazeen Javed April 28 is International Day of Action for Health and Safety at the Workplace. In a small 12x14 room in Orangi Town, with only a small door for ventilation, 9-year-old Ayesha is busy rolling agarbatti sticks. She is humming the latest Jawad Ahmed ditty when suddenly she has a spasm of cough. She feels dizzy and goes out of the room to get some fresh air, but returns soon after, despite feeling nauseous. She has a whole pile of agarbatti sticks to roll if they are to eat the next day. Her 7-year-old brother, who returns home later, has small cuts all over his tiny hands. He works at an auto workshop and is assigned the task of cleaning small parts and cuts his hands during the process. They both have to work in order to support their family of five. Their father has abandoned them and the mother is too sick to work. Though only in her early 30s, she is nauseous all the time and vomits whenever she eats anything. Before Ayesha, it was she who used to roll bidis (crude hand-made cigarettes). But because of spending the better part of the day in
heavy nicotine-infested air, she developed tuberculosis and cannot work (she didn't even know she had TB before a team of researchers took her to a doctor for proper check up). Ayesha, very keen to help her mother, has taken over her job only recently. She doesn't know that if she stays exposed to the harmful chemicals used in agarbatti masala and continues to work in a room with no ventilation for long hours, she, too, will meet a similar fate. Pakistan has poor occupational safety and health legislation and even poorer infrastructure to monitor it. Most of the workers work ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
heavy nicotine-infested air, she developed tuberculosis and cannot work (she didn't even know she had TB before a team of researchers took her to a doctor for proper check up). Ayesha, very keen to help her mother, has taken over her job only recently. She doesn't know that if she stays exposed to the harmful chemicals used in agarbatti masala and continues to work in a room with no ventilation for long hours, she, too, will meet a similar fate. Pakistan has poor occupational safety and health legislation and even poorer infrastructure to monitor it. Most of the workers work as casual labour in informal and unregulated sectors such as agriculture, construction, mining and manufacturing. There is no concrete data available about occupational safety and health (OSH) because the majority of accidents are not reported to the labour department. The situation is even worse for children. Most children work casually and have no benefits. Secondly, child work is prohibited in certain industries, so when such cases occur in factories, they go unreported. Even when reported, the magnitude of injuries is often minimized, which results in unavailability of credible data. The main law dealing with OSH is the Factories Act 1934. There are Hazardous Occupation Rules 1978; the Mines Act 1923; Social Security Ordinance 1965; Workman's Compensation Act 1923; Shop and Establishment Act 1969 and Dock Labourer Act 1934. But all these laws fail to address the issue of OSH of child workers. It is known that child workers face a lot of safety and health concerns, as do adults, but the effects are more damaging on children with their low level of resistance. Children mostly work in carpet weaving, garages, agriculture, welding and light engineering, auto workshops, garbage collection and chemical sector and service industry. Ironically, most are labelled hazardous for children in the newly-formulated National List of Hazardous Forms of Child Labour for Pakistan (see box). There are some in construction and transport, but they are less in numbers. A recent study carried out by PILER on brick-kiln workers revealed that most of the children work with their parents and are bonded since birth. Most children found on the brick kilns fall into the age group of 10-14. They are exposed to extremely high temperatures and brick dust, which causes lung infection, skin problems and eye allergies. Their posture at work causes backaches and joints' pain. Those who work in automobile workshops use petrol as solvent to clean auto parts. Inhalation and absorption of petrol through pores pose multiple health problems such as depression, low red cell count, skin diseases and even skin cancer, due to the presence of benzene in petrol. Breathing petrol fumes can also be addictive. A great number of children also work in agriculture. Exposure to pesticides and other agrochemicals may cause poisoning, cancer and impairment of reproductive organs. In southern Punjab and Sindh, young girls reported a variety of lung diseases during cotton-picking season. Another factor that puts child workers at risk is the design of work. The patterns and schedule of work, i.e., eight-hour work shifts, one break in the middle, design of tools, workstations and protective gear, are all designed for adults. Even though child labour is rampant in all parts of the world, more so since globalization and in low-income countries, no legislation is carried out to check these hazards. WHO's Study Group on Children's Work has summarized a few findings: The eyesight of children working with very fine wire, performing carpet weaving or embroidery, or working in microcomputer factories is damaged within 5-8 years. Children using hand tools, such as hammers and screwdrivers designed for adults, are said to have higher risk of injury and fatigue. Children using seats and benches designed for adults have more muscular and skeletal problems. When children find that the protective gear does not fit them, they work either without it or use makeshift arrangements such as tying a handkerchief over their nose instead of respirators, or using coloured glass while welding. Young workers have lower tolerance to heat than adults and face a greater danger of heatstroke. In addition to all these hazards, most children are malnourished and have lower level of resistance than other healthier children of their age. The Government of Pakistan ratified the ILO Convention 182 regarding the immediate elimination of worst forms of labour, but no local legislation followed for its implementation. In 2001, the government announced the National Policy and Action Plan to combat child labour, but that, too, is impractical and has no connection with the hard realities.
