ISLAMABAD - Wearing shabby clothes with worn-out shoes, the number of children cleaning windscreens, picking trash and holding begging bowls in their hands is on the rise in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Whenever the traffic signals turn red, a group of children holding wipers to clean windscreens of vehicles, begging bowls, flowers and newspapers for sale, emerge on the road, pestering the motorists for financial help. The incessant increase in the prices of food compelled economically hard-pressed families to push their children to work. Socially, child labour is acceptable and parents willingly send their children to work, while the employers are keen to employ children because they are cheap, easy to control and exploit. Subsequently, the bunches of boys and girls are seen labouring in exploitative or hazardous conditions in every street, market, square and at some busiest locations. In Pakistan, first Child Labour Survey (CLS) conducted in 1996 by the Federal Bureau of Statistics revealed that there were 3.3 million children identified as child labourers, including 2.4 million boys and 0.9 million girls. It is to be mentioned here that there had been no assessment at national level since 1996. These official figures were released over decade back and cannot be applied today, primarily because of population growth and increasing poverty in the last 13 years. The tall claims of the government to eliminate menace of beggary and child labour always proved futile, as the situation is worsening with every passing day. Number of laws had been enacted over the years for protecting child rights. The national policy and the plan of action was the first major initiative in this regard that provides a broad framework to both public and private sector to make holistic interventions for elimination of child labours and work together for protecting their rights. However, there is no constructive change in the lives of millions children, who have to work hard to win their days bread across the country. Besides insufficient enforcement of legislation, there are several other important factors for exploitation of children such as inadequate availability of educational institutions and poor quality of education coupled with ignorance, negligence and attitude of the society.