UNDERSTANDING REASONS OF CHILD LABOUR IN A DEVELOPING ECONOMY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF KARACHI, PAKISTAN

The research aims at understanding and exploring the different reasons behind the plague of ‘Child labour’ that has engulfed Pakistan since its independence. As a member of International Labour Organization (ILO), Pakistan is obligated to eradicate child labour and/or bounded labour from its system in order to get value of its exports. Furthermore, the sample of this qualitative research consists of working children (e.g. auto-shops, factories, retail stores etc.), employers, community members, parents and teachers who were selected through convenient random sampling. The overall sample size consists of 130 respondents who were interviewed and their responses, after translation, were analyzed thematically. The results show that due to large family sizes and increasing poverty, children are inclined to work and earn a living on the cost of their education aseither their parents do not work or are unable to meet their ends meet.