Against the menace: Funds required for survey on child labour

International day to be observed on Sunday (today)

PESHAWAR: The provincial government should made adequate allocations in the budget for a survey to ascertain the number of child labourers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This was said by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child Regional Manager Jehanzeb Khan.

He was addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday in connection with World Day Against Child Labour that will be commemorated on Sunday (today).

While addressing the people present at the news conference, Jehanzeb Khan expressed concern over the rising number of child labourers in K-P and in the entire country. He said a law should be made to curtail child labour in the country.

Flanked by other officials from the NGO, SPARC, Jehanzeb Khan said over half of the child labourers are exposed to the worst forms of labour, such as work in hazardous environments, slavery and illicit activities, including drug trafficking and prostitution as well as involvement in armed conflict.

He regretted there are no statistics available on child labourers in the country and said the last survey was conducted in 1996 which estimates around 3.3 million child labourers in the country.

While referring to reports by International Labour Organization, he said there are an estimated 12 million children engaged in labour while Unicef roughly estimates 10 million child labourers across the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2016.