From Promise to Action: Addressing the Education Emergency and Child Labour Crisis in Pakistan

Article 25-A's guarantee of free, compulsory education for every child aged 5 to 16 remains largely unfulfilled, with 26.2 million children still out of school and child labour both a cause and a consequence. The scale is hard to even measure: the first and only national Child Labour Survey, in 1996, recorded 3.3 million children in child labour, and while Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ran their own surveys in 2020 and 2022, the absence of consistent monitoring keeps the true picture blurred.

On 12 June, World Day Against Child Labour, PCE brought experts together to examine the root causes, impacts, and workable solutions to end child labour in Pakistan. The accompanying policy brief captures the discussion and the actionable recommendations it produced.

Watch it here: [Link TBA]

Read the policy brief