The issue of child labor in Pakistan's export industries has become the topic of much controversy and in some ways has triggered the debate over trade and labor standards. Consumer protests and boycotts in the North have led to initiatives being taken by various national and international organizations. However, this article takes issue with the current projection of child labor as a function of children's poverty and lack of education and families' lack of awareness. The author argues that it is impossible to understand and even address the child labor problem without placing it against the back drop of the dynamics of the current neoliberal international political economic system. She concludes by arguing that the only way in which the issue of social and labor rights can be once more given precedence in an increasingly socially disembedded world economy is through political engagement with the forces of globalization: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.
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