Child labour: A unit to cure the curse?

Speakers highlight media’s role in curbing child labour.

PESHAWAR:

Speakers at a seminar on child labour underscored the media’s role in highlighting the issue here on Wednesday.

The media seminar for the launch of the action programme and inauguration of the Provincial Child Labour Unit (PCLU) was arranged by the Directorate of Labour.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Labour Director Irfanullah Khan told the gathering about the Child Labour Elimination Programme being implemented by the provincial government.

“The International Labour Organisation (ILO) district model will initially be replicated in three districts and later expanded to other districts of the province,” Irfan said.

Saadia Ainuddin, Program Officer of the European Union (EU), praised the efforts of the K-P government in eliminating child labour from the province in spite of resource constraints.

ILO Senior Program Manager Taseer Alizai said that his organisation will offer every kind of technical assistance to the government and all kinds of cooperation will be extended for the welfare of children.

He said that under this program, the capacity of government officials attached with the Child Labour Unit would be strengthened through national and international trainings.

K-P Labour Secretary Mohammad Akbar Khan termed child labour as a curse for society and suggested that concerted efforts were needed to eliminate it from the province.

The provincial government, he said, had already approved an annual development programme of Rs14 million for the year 2010-11 for the purpose.

He said that the provincial government had recently signed an agreement with the ILO to launch a programme for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in three selected districts in K-P.

The Provincial Coordination Committee on child labour has already been constituted and a Provincial Child Labour Unit has been established in the K-P Directorate of Labour. He appreciated the ILO and EU for extending assistance to the provincial government under their CACL-II project.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2011.