Owing to poverty, as many as 1.2 million children are forced to work to support their families when they should be in school.This was stated by participants of an ‘awareness walk’ in the capital on Tuesday. Held to mark World Children’s Day, students and teachers from various schools of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi walked from Jinnah Super Market to the National Press Club.Zaidan Hamid, one of the world’s youngest professor, led the walk. He said that many children in the country are compelled to work and support their family from a young age.He cited figures from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which estimate that the number of working children in Pakistan is as high as 1.2 million. He added that there was a dire need to conduct a national survey to learn about the actual number of children involved in child labour so that suitable, new policies can be devised.Hamid further said that a lot of children work in homes, carpet factories, leather factories, bangle workshops, auto workshops, coal mines and even brick kilns, all from a very young age.“These children are engaging in many dangerous fields for work,” he said, adding that to stop this and ensure children’s education there is a need for devising adequate laws and their effective implementation.Tifli Education Zonal Head Abdul Salam said that Pakistan is amongst those countries in the world where a majority of the population comprises young people. However, it was quite unfortunate that a large portion of this population was deprived of basic facilities and rights.According to a Human Rights Commission Pakistan report from 2014, around 30 per cent of children in the country face malnutrition.Moreover, a 2015 report from the UNICEF found that one in 14 children in Pakistan die before celebrating their first birthday, while every 11th child dies before celebrating their fifth birthday.While 25 million children are deprived of basic education, around 47 per cent of children between the ages of five and 16 are out of school. Moreover, around 78 per cent of children have never been admitted to a school.Published in The Express Tribune, November 21, 2018.