'Media should help govt, NGOs in eradicating child labour’

Media should help govt, NGOs in eradicating child labour’

dailytimes.com.pk
PESHAWAR: Participants at a one-day capacity building workshop on ‘Activating Media in Combating Worst Forms of Child Labour in Pakistan’ appealed to media persons to help the government, as well as national and international organisations, in curbing child labour through their writings, documentaries and awareness campaigns.
Addressing, as chief guest, the workshop that had been jointly organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai said it was unfortunate that child labour was on the rise in Pakistan despite presence of numerous child rights’ laws. The minister held parents responsible for worst form of child labour, and said parents should educate their children.
“If parents do their job, there will be no child labour in the country,” he said, adding that the second major barrier in eradication of child labour was poverty. “No father and mother want to play with their children’s future. But due to poverty, numerous children are subjected to mental, physical and moral torture in workplaces,” Daudzai added. “ILO should involve religious scholars and prayer leaders, who can sensitise people and can prepare parents to send their children to school, instead of workplaces,” he added. The minister also said that most child labourers in NWFP and tribal areas were Afghans. He also held the federal government responsible for spread of child labour and for financial crises being incurred by the Frontier province, and said it withheld the province’s hydropower royalty due to political reasons.
Saba Mohsin Raza, the national project manager of the ‘Activating Media in Combating Worst Forms of Child Labour in Pakistan’ project, appealed to journalists to highlight child labour issues and to help the government in curbing the menace.
She added that according to a government survey conducted in 1996, there were 3.3 million child labourers, including 2.4 million boys and 0.9 million girls. “Out of the total 37.90 million labour force, 15.23 million were found child labourers in the country,” she added.
Saba Mohsin Raza said that in Pakistan, the worst forms child labour existed in the sectors of carpet, soccer and surgical instrument manufacturing, rag pickers/scavengers, bonded labour/brick kiln, tanneries, auto workshops, fisheries, street children/beggars, trafficking, houses, coal mines and agriculture.
She, however, termed poverty, unemployment, lack of educational facilities, low literacy rate, negative attitude of family members, parents’ death, domestic violence and frequent beating/coercion at homes and schools the major reasons for child labour. staff report