Ten million engaged in child labour in Pakistan

Sindh Information Minister Sharmila Farooqui, referring to a recent report, said on Tuesday that 10 million children are currently engaged in child labour in Pakistan, out of which 300,000 are in Sindh.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Activating Media in Combating Child Labour’ at Karachi University, Farooqui said “Child Labor is an international evil. It requires cumulative efforts to wipe it out. The need of the hour is to expand the machinery for enforcing the various laws on child labor.”

According to the report, 220 million children, aged five to 17, are subject to child labour all around the world, excluding those involved in domestic labour.

The minister linked this issue mainly to the lack of proper awareness, poverty and low level of parental education. “There is a plethora of laws but desirable results could not be achieved until there is awareness among parents and children. Child labor is a bane which deprives them of the realisation of their full potential for growth into useful and productive members of the society,” she observed.

She said the media has a very important role to play in ensuring that correct information is disseminated and the government’s considerable efforts to eradicate of the scourge of child labor are duly communicated to the public.

Farooqui also underlined the importance of the role of civil society and NGOs in the elimination of child labor and stressed that the government does not have the infra-structure to reach every section of the society and particularly the millions who work and live in remote areas. “Civil Society and NGOs can act as a bridge between hard-to-reach areas and the government,” she added.