He was only 10 years old and he thought it was harmless and could even benefit his playmates. And so, recalls Sardar Yousafzai, he and his brother would convince as many boys their age to come work in the tobacco fields where their father was the contractor.
“All the contractors … tried to have as many children as possible for work,” says Yousafzai. “In return for their work, they received pocket money, fresh water, and food.”
Yousafzai, now a journalist, is from the Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in northwest Pakistan. Also known as KPK, the province is the source of 78 percent of Pakistan’s total tobacco output. Swabi’s fertile fields yield the most tobacco among KPK’s seven districts. And from June till August each year, those fields are full of children plucking tobacco leaves and then collecting and loading them into vehicles headed for the kilns. Many times, the children would also work at the kilns, sorting the dried leaves and preparing them for the cigarette factories.
Child labor is an open secret in Pakistan’s tobacco industry. In Swabi, residents estimate that as much as 30 percent of the children there work in the tobacco fields during harvest season. For many of the children, it is like getting paid for playing with leaves and sticks. Journalist Muhammad Dawood Khan, now 36, says that he even “relished” the times when, as a young boy, he could work in the fields.
A field of green tobacco leaves may look picturesque, but the scene belies a toxic and dangerous environment for the children working on tobacco farms. (Photo by Sidra Saeed)
In reality, however, it is long and hazardous work that puts children at risk of getting hurt with the sharp tools used in cutting and preparing the leaves and falling ill because of prolonged exposure to the sun or rain. Handling the leaves with their bare hands also makes them prone to developing allergies, nicotine addiction, and “green tobacco sickness” or nicotine poisoning.
Harmful leaves
Tobacco cultivator Sparley Momand says that when the tobacco leaves get wet due to rain, the child workers often suffer allergic reactions such as itching and vomiting. Momand explains that this is because of the pesticide sprayed over the tobacco crop; when it rains, the crop becomes extremely toxic and harmful.
“Definitely, tobacco leaves are harmful to children,” says Dr. Javaid Khan, a top pulmonologist in Karachi. “Child laborers who work in tobacco fields are consistently exposed to toxic chemicals, such as pesticides. These chemicals have been found to cause respiratory symptoms, skin and eye damage, nerve damage, and kidney damage. Dermal exposure to wet tobacco leaves causes nicotine absorption, which can lead to green tobacco sickness — a kind of nicotine poisoning that leads to nausea, vomiting, dizziness, muscle weakness, headaches, and difficulties in eating and sleeping.”
According to Khan, “a 2020 study found that that green tobacco sickness causes damage to the DNA, which may lead to long-term effects such as cancer and accelerated aging.“
“Multiple studies found that green tobacco syndrome occurred more in younger tobacco workers as compared to adults,” he adds. “Other health effects associated with tobacco farming include respiratory disorders, musculoskeletal injuries, and psychiatric disorders.“
Studies have shown as well that children who work in tobacco farms are more likely to take up smoking.
”The reason is pretty simple,” Khan says. “Once they touch tobacco leaves, they start to absorb nicotine. Once they start taking nicotine either passively or actively, their brain gets addicted to nicotine. Therefore, in the early evening and night hours, when nicotine level in the brain drops, to satisfy their nicotine debt, they start using cigarettes to fulfill their nicotine requirement. This establishes the fact that those children who work at tobacco farms are more likely to take up smoking.”
While working in the fields, the children are also likely to inhale the pesticide sprayed on the plants. Khan says that this is another factor that contributes to upper respiratory infection and sore throat. Not surprisingly, throat infection is among the most common illnesses among children in KPK.
There are girls among the child workers, whose ages range from eight to 14 years old, but mostly boys are recruited. Yousafzai says that the children are usually from poor families struggling to make ends meet. More than likely, these children suffer from a lack of nutrition, making them more vulnerable to the health risks posed by working in the tobacco fields.
The nimble fingers of the children make them valuable tobacco workers. “These children know how to skillfully bind the tobacco leaves, plucked from the fields, with the thread attached to the two-yard sticks,” says Yousafzai says. Sixty to 80 leaves are tied to each stick, which earns them PKR 2 (one U.S. cent). On average, a child working in a tobacco field can earn PKR 120 (70 U.S. cents) a day.
About 70 sticks with these leaves are hung in the kiln at a time, says Yousafzai. After a week, they are taken out of the kiln, and the children sort the leaves and make bundles that are then sent to the factory. In Swabi, each kiln employs around 50 workers, with women and children among them. Yousafzai says that children used to work in the factories as well, but the practice was stopped during the administration of Pervez Musharraf.
Thriving during the pandemic
While most industry sectors have suffered setbacks and losses during the pandemic, Pakistan’s tobacco industry has managed to thrive. According to the November 2020 data of the Bureau of Statistics, 21.4 billion cigarettes were produced from July till November last year, which was five times greater than 2019’s total production of 3.5 billion cigarettes.
As much as 95 percent of Pakistan’s tobacco products are exported, but tobacco use in the country has nevertheless rung up PKR 650 billion (US$3.8 billion) a year in terms of economic and health costs. A study done by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Children revealed that in Pakistan, 1,200 children a day take up smoking.
It could well be that many of those child smokers had worked or are still working in the country’s tobacco fields. But no one has done any study on Pakistan’s “tobacco kids,” with authorities apparently looking the other way to avoid acknowledging their presence in the industry. This is, after all, a country that has at least 13 million child laborers, with 5.2 million of those working in the agricultural sector.
Twelve-year-old Muhammad Sudris says that his friends like working in the tobacco fields; he does not. He is the second of eight children. His family depends mostly on what his father earns as an auto-rickshaw driver. What Muhammad earns in the fields helps them get over serious humps that show up every so often in their everyday lives. Currently in seventh grade, he wants to finish his education and join the army someday.
Yousafzai, who is now 47, says that some of the children who used to work in his father’s tobacco fields did manage to finish school. Several others, however, did not and are currently laborers. “Now, when I go to the village, it is sad to see the children working in fields,” he says.
Yousafzai thinks that parents should bear any hardship themselves and not force their children to work. But for many, that is simply not among their options — if they have any at all. ●
Sidra Saeed is a journalist based in Pakistan. Her work has been published in national and international news outfits such as DW Urdu, Urdu News, TNS, and Khabar Namay.
