Sialkot, a small city of Pakistan, is known worldwide for the production of quality soccer balls. The soccer ball production capability of Sialkot has brought this small city under the spot light on the globe. More than 50 International soccer-ball-brands rely on Sialkot for meeting the highest demands of their customers. Due to this international stature of Sialkot the issue of child labour in soccer ball production line was highlighted through electronic and print media during the last decade of the past millennium. Sialkot reacted positively to eliminate child labour from soccer ball industry.

The Valentine’s Day of the year 1997 was not a special day for lovers only but it also marked the beginning of a new era for the children of Sialkot. On 14^th February 1997, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), the representative body of the Sialkot businessmen, entered into an agreement with International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for elimination of Child Labour from Soccer Ball Industry. The agreement is also known as the Atlanta Agreement. The agreement was originally planned for duration of 18 months which is well into the extended phase of volunteer implementation till date. The Atlanta Partners have won accolades from around the world for the elimination of child labour from soccer ball industry of Sialkot. The most appreciable feature is that the Atlanta Partners did not develop a tunnel vision for addressing the problem of child labour from soccer ball industry. They broadened their vision with the passage of time and with the help of learning by doing. The sector-specific child labour elimination plan has laid strong foundations for the planning of a child-labour-free-Sialkot. The following lines carry the details of the saga of ensuring child rights.  

One must acknowledge the active role played by WFSGI, FIFA, SGMA and SICA. These agencies not only facilitated the process of signing of the agreement but also provided financial support for the implementation of resulting Sialkot Projects.

Why Children Work in Sialkot?

Children work for many reasons, it is claimed that the most important reason for child labour is poverty but it would be interesting to know that this is mental poverty; the thinking that nurtured due to poverty. Providing support to this issue is the fact that Sialkot has highest per capita income in Pakistan, which is almost double than the rest of the country!

In addition to this, the aimless education provided in the schools and the negative attitude of the teachers that discourages enrolment of children and causes heavy dropouts leaves children and their families with no other option but to push children into the inferno of child labour. While some child workers do have an impact on income at the level of the family — but many work because the parents and children themselves are least satisfied with the standard of education in our schools. They think that to learn some skill at an early age will ensure earning bread and butter in the future, while going to school, even for the primary schooling, will not lead them anywhere.

Easy opportunities for work at an early age, is another important factor which supports child labour. When it is combined with the fact that craftsmanship nature of the skills is the demand of the local job market, it has a synergistic impact. Parents tend to send their children to learn the skills, to the skilled craftsmen (Ustads), as early as child develops the ability to handle the tools. The trainers (Ustads) exploit children by making them do simple tasks and running errands for years and teaching them the original skill very slowly and very late.

Poverty – easy opportunities for work at an early age – meaningless and low quality education – craftsmanship nature of the skills being the demand of the job market – not enough institutions to teach such skills – Ustads (skilled craftsmen) exploiting young children for teaching the required skills are some of the major factors contributing to child labour in Sialkot. During recent years it has become a common practice in many families, around the district, for children to do some work or business from very early age instead of going to school.

It can thus be deducted that the children in Sialkot are not exploited by any particular employer or an industry; rather they are exploited by an economic and social system which has created mental poverty, allowed and provided work opportunities at an early age and has not been cognizant of its social liabilities and development of the inhabitants.

However, there is hardly any child found working in formal sector, most of them are employed in the informal sector, i.e. they work on the streets, in the farms and in a number of unregistered and unregulated manufacturing units. There are many who pick through garbage searching for re-saleable junk; work in the auto workshops; serve as waiters in the teashops and hotels; they also work at brick kilns and are used to run errands and perform simple tasks and paid very little. A certain percentage of these children belong to the Afghan refugees, migrated to Pakistan as result of the civil war and the ongoing war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Exact figures for such children are not available at the moment.

What is child labour and child work?There is no clear definition of child labour available, but it usually means work done by children under the age of 14, which limits or damages their physical, mental, social, emotional, cognitive and/or psychological development.

Some work does not harm children, and may in fact be beneficial for them. However, when we talk about child labour, we are referring to something intolerable — children simply denied the right to be children or denied any of their basic rights i.e. education, recreation and health. In case of a child attending a formal/non-formal school, having an access to health facilities, getting the opportunities to play and working part-time; then the term child work applies instead of child labour. The child work means that a child is supervised by a blood relative – working under flexible timings – assured his basic rights at work – affectionate supervision of the work by the employer and co-workers – and child interests are being monitored and taken good care by all stakeholders. The movement of converting child labour into child work is supposed to initiate the process of attitudinal change amongst communities without much distress. It is expected that this movement will sensitize communities on the rights of the children gradually and it will ultimately stop further entry of children in the job market. By virtue of this process each and every member of the community will attain a satisfactory level of information and awareness on the rights of the children which is vital for elimination of child labour in the long run.

The distinction between child labour and child work has helped child right activists dealing with the situations where withdrawal from work was not possible for a child. The second option, in such case, was to ensure rights of the child at work i.e. lessened work-time, appropriate dealing from adult co-workers, entertainment opportunities, education formally or non-formally, and medical treatment, if needed.

Partners and Partnerships:

As mentioned earlier the signing of Atlanta Agreement opened avenues for partners of the Sialkot Projects to approach the problem of child labour from many directions. ILO, UNICEF and SCCI took different initiatives to eliminate child labour on sustained basis. The work of all partners has helped Sialkot to build a very strong platform for complete elimination of the evil of child labour from its every corner.  Following lines highlight the main features of Sialkot Projects and role of the partners in the efforts for the noble cause of the elimination of child labour.

Elimination of Child Labour from Soccer Ball Industry

Majority of the soccer ball manufacturers has joined the SCCI - ILO-IPEC’s Child Labour Elimination Programme under which a system of internal and external monitoring has been instituted.  Presently, under the external monitoring system, ILO-IPEC is monitoring more than 90% of the soccer ball export production from Sialkot.  And it could be said, with great certainty, that at least, there is no child labour at workstations being monitored by ILO-IPEC. The constant monitoring of the stitching centres has gone beyond the registered manufacturers workstations. Recently ILO monitors have started area-based-monitoring i.e. including all workstations whether registered or unregistered with ILO monitoring team. For the last two months ILO monitors have not come across even a single child on the workstations during their area-based un-announced monitoring visits, which indicate the positive attitudinal shift amongst community towards child labour.

On the social protection side, the ILO-IPEC has set up non-formal education centres for children withdrawn from work. These children are mainstreamed after completing their primary education into formal system of education. Micro Credit provided to the families whose income has been affected by the children withdrawn from work. The skill enhancement training is provided to these families for building their capacities as small entrepreneurs. Medical Checkups and Health camps are also arranged by ILO and its local partner NGOs.

ILO has also launched a programme for the children working in the surgical industry of Sialkot. Child Labour Elimination Programme for Surgical Industry of Sialkot focuses on surgical industry for social protection and non-formal education of the working children.

Awareness about Child Labour in All Industries of Sialkot

Elimination of Child Labour from Hazardous Occupations (ECHO) is a partnership of SCCI with UNICEF and local NGOs, which is aimed at providing awareness about mental, developmental and physical and all other hazards of child labour and facilitating attitudinal changes, amongst communities, for eliminating and preventing child labour from ALL industries. While working on ECHO the partners were able to address each and every working child, right at the grass roots level. An intensive awareness campaign was carried out last year to ensure that communities are well aware of the hazards, reasons and prevention of child labour. Child labour elimination plans prepared with the help of community members at the village level for each and every working child. Partners also prepared semi-anthropological case histories of the children across the district to find out the root cause of child labour. On the basis of the information collected by this exercise and conclusions drawn the social mobilization strategy is revised to provide maximum benefit to these children whos withdrawal from work was not possible.

Partners have adopted the strategy to develop a community based child labour identification, withdrawal, rehabilitation, monitoring and elimination plan so that the communities take the responsibility of dealing with their kids on merits enshrined in the CRC.

One of the major activities carried out under this programme was the arrangement of special gathering by the manufacturers for their employees and subcontractors where they highlighted the hazards of child labour and requested the participants to take action for the elimination of child labour.

Prevention of Child Labour through Universalization of Primary Education

The SCCI, in association with UNICEF and the Government of the Punjab, have achieved enrolment of all 5-7 years old children in the primary schools, in Sialkot district through implementation of Universal Primary Education Project (UPE) in year 2000. UPE Project was implemented as preventive measure for children entering in child labour. With the achievement of 100% enrolment, this has stopped further entry of children into the labour market.

Recent focus is on retention of children in the schools for at least five years of primary schooling; continually ensuring 100% enrolment and training and capacity building of the district education department and the teachers for imparting quality education. The success of this effort can easily be realized by the fact that the Sialkot-UPE model is being owned by the Provincial Government for replication in the rest of the province for the universalization of primary education which will hopefully be followed by the implementation at the National level. 

The primary schooling statistics of district Sialkot before implementation of UPE project were; the gross enrolment rate in the primary schools was 83% and dropout rate for the first year of primary schooling was 15%. The enrolment rate had raised up-to 100% and dropout rate had come remarkably down to 1.15 during year 2000. A recent UPE-evaluation study has found out that the dropout rate is 0.7%. The study has also suggested that the enrolment rate is 97% instead of the claimed 100%. It has also highlighted the indicators of positive attitudinal change amongst communities towards education of their children. The final report of the said study is yet to be published when these lines were written. (interested readers can obtain a copy of the evaluation report from UNICEF Pakistan on request)

In the light of the results of the evaluation of the UPE, partners are making necessary changes and refining the strategies to ensure 100% enrolment of children in schools. They are very positive about achieving the objective of 100% enrolment every year the way they did in year 2000.

Steps towards Child Labour Free Sialkot

The SCCI has established Child and Social Development Programme (CSDP) to provide continuity and sustainability to the Sialkot Projects and efforts underway for elimination of child labour in district Sialkot. CSDP is an initiative of SCCI, supported by the Atlanta Partners i.e. ILO and UNICEF for institutional capacity building of SCCI to provide sustainability to all the actions/activities for ensuring the socially responsible entrepreneurship in Sialkot, including the elimination of child labour as well as the enhanced implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Children.

Formation and establishment of an independent Monitoring Body for Child Labour in Sialkot is another landmark in the process of elimination of child labour on sustained basis. The independent monitoring body will be functional at the start of the year 2002 which will take over the monitoring system being taken care by ILO at the moment. The proposed body may cater the child labour monitoring needs of all the industries in district Sialkot. 

Future Vision:

The district government in Sialkot is planning for a child labour free environment in the district. The strategies and action plans are drawn on the basis of experiences of the Non-governmental partners already working on the elimination of child labour.

The local government has a wealth of community based network of elected members of the local government which will be used to facilitate the work of non-governmental partners and to carry out supporting activities on their own. The training will be provided to the elected members of the local government to build their capacity to address issues pertaining to child labour on an ongoing basis.

Sialkot aspires to provide the third world with a practical, easy to implement, result oriented and replicable model for elimination of child labour.  The way partners are working in Sialkot is an excellent practical example for the countries and organizations working to achieve the same objectives. An Indian delegation visited Sialkot last year to learn from our experiences. We are ready for any such help for anyone, you are WELCOM!

Note from the Author:

I have served as President of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 2000-2001 tenure. This period earned me many great honours. It was the same time when I was selected by WFSGI as Director for South Asia Region. By the grace of God I was selected as the District Nazim Sialkot (Chief Executive of the District Government) also. Today I am serving the people of my district as District Nazim. The SCCI, ILO and UNICEF are already at eliminating child labour in Sialkot; I am facilitating the work of these organizations as the head of district government. At the same time I am planning to make use of all resources available for achieving a child-labour free Sialkot i.e. eliminating child labour from formal and informal sectors of all industries. The district government is in the process of developing an action plan to completely remove child labour from its folds. I would like to request the readers to provide us with their valuable comments and technical assistance in this regard. Their help will not only be for the children of Sialkot but I am very optimistic to develop a model to replicate in any part of the world facing the problem of child labour.

Mian Neem Javed
District Nazim, Sialkot (CEO)
CEO, Sublime Industries
Regional Director, WFSGI (Asia Region)

SCCI – Sialkot Projects for Child Labour Elimination

Following are the figures depicting project achievements;

External Monitoring
Total Number of Stitchers at the Stitching Centers	22,744*
Number of Male Stitchers	16770*
Number of Female Stitchers	5974*
Total Number of Stitching Centers	1447
Combined Stitching Centers (male and female)	61
Number of centers being monitored by ILO (Registered + Unregistered, As of 31 Dec. 2001) (1447 + 889)	2336
Number of Manufacturers who have joined the programme	93
Total number of monitoring visits carried out, so far	33,995
Percentage of total soccer ball production in Sialkot covered by ILO external monitoring system	< 90%
Non Formal Education
Total number of Non Formal education centers established by ILO	185
Total number of children in NFEs established by ILO	6019
Number of children who have been mainstreamed into formal education system either after passing the primary grade tests or at a lower level	3747
Number of NFEs operating	42
Number of children still studying	2272
Extended Non Formal Education Programme (Phase II)
Total number of New NFEs to be established	70
New NFEs established by 31st Dec. 2001	30
Number of children enrolled in new NFEs	950
Social Protection
Number of families provided micro credit	9426
Number of families provided skill enhancement training	3455
Total amount disbursed to families by NRSP	150 Million Rupees
Wages raise for foot ball stitching since the commencement of the Atlanta agreement	20-40%
Awareness Amongst Communities To Facilitate Attitudinal Changes
Number of District Level workshops held	1
Number of Tehsil Level workshops held	6
Number of Health camps	24
Child labourers withdrawn from work and enrolled in formal schools	783
Awareness meetings with manufacturers in district Sialkot	4024
Number of semi anthropological case histories prepared for finding root cause of child labour	4523
Number of union council level meetings held	60
Number of village level community meetings on monthly basis for awareness about elimination, rehabilitation and monitoring of child labourers by community members	1608
Number of awareness walks held	800
Independent Monitoring Body for Child Labour
The independent monitoring body is at the final stages of getting registered under section 42 of Companies Ordinance 1984 - Pakistan	April 1, 2002
Proposed Board of Governors includes the members, namely;	1.  WFSGI 2.  FIFA 3.  CSDP 4.  ILO 5.  UNICEF 6.  SCCI 7.  Sports Good Manufacturers Association of Pakistan 8.  Export Promotion Bureau, Govt. of Pakistan
Universal Primary Education
Number of villages and wards in district Sialkot	1608 villages, 175 urban wards
Enrollment status year 2000 (formerly 83%)	97%
Dropout rate for year 2000 (formerly 15%)	0.7%
Out of school children identified during year 2001	57,922
Children Enrolled by 31st Dec. 2001	55,436
Child and Social Development Programme
Development and finalization of the projects for;	To be accomplished during the course of the project implementation during 2002
Establishment of an area-based child and social development system/mechanism
Capacity building of the SCCI member organizations to further make aware and educate their vendors/sub-contractors and communities on the issues of child labour and social liabilities of the stakeholders.

* Fluctuation = +/- 200