Policy Paradox in Practice: A Qualitative Investigation into the Formulation-Implementation Nexus of Child Labor Prevention Policies in Pakistan's Federal-Provincial Governance Structure

Child labour in Pakistan has been an inherent socio-structural phenomenon; which is perpetuated by poverty, informality and the lack of systems governance even after decades of legal change and international adherence. This research is vigorously highlighting the reality that child labor is not only a need to exist economically but just a symptom of the instability of institutions, their social-cultural normalcy, and historicity of inequalities. This qualitative research examines the lived experiences, the social meanings, and the institutional practices that define child labor in different contexts and the manner in which policy frameworks are construed and negotiated by various participants, such as a child, caregivers, employer, teachers, local authorities, and inspectors. This study employs an interpretivist approach to identify mechanisms that are concealed in households, informal labour markets and governance systems that reproduce child labour using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and contextual inquiry. By implementing the thematic analysis based on the framework proposed by Braun and Clarke,2023, one can identify five patterns connected to each other, poverty compulsion, gender household norms, subcontracting chains, weak enforcement regimes, and non-attachment to schooling, both structural and psychosocial. Such findings are consistent with local evidence over the recent years that policy failures are functions of disjointed institutions, insufficient capacity of implementation, and cultural belief system validating child labour as a survival mechanism. The paper concludes that only legislative response will not help in breaking the cycle of exploitation, multi-level intervention involving social protection, educational reform and enhanced labour regulation is required. Placing its own analysis into the context of stakeholder stories, this study provides context-sensitive knowledge that has the promise to instigate ethically-based, culturally-responsible, and institutionally-realistic child protection approaches in low-resource, high-informality settings. Keywords: Child labor; Qualitative research; Thematic analysis; Poverty and informality; Gendered labor norms; Policy implementation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18772820