Future imperilled: Govt stops fee payment of child labourers sent to school

Project loses priority; over a thousand children may be forced back to work


Jamil Mirza November 26, 2018
PHOTO: APP

RAWALPINDI: The future of 1,070 children who were removed from child labour and enrolled in private educational institutions under the special project of the provincial labour department is at stake as their monthly fees is not being regularly paid by the Punjab government.

The previous government of PML-N had devised a plan to enrol child workers in private schools to provide them quality education and pay the tuition fee and all other expenses from public exchequer.

However, the new provincial government has stopped payments to the selected schools ever since it came to power.

The Punjab government has not paid the monthly fees of these children for the past seven months. The private sector schools left with no other option have informed the parents of these children that they children will be rusticated.

Sources told Daily Express that if the education expenditures of these children were not restored they may be forced back into child labour.

According to available data, each of these 1,070 children admitted in educational institutes were given a monthly stipend, besides school fees and free books and uniforms. However, these expenditures have not been paid for the past seven months and the provision of uniform has also been stopped. They are only being provided free books.

These children who belong to the low-income groups were forced into child labour to meet household expenditures.

To encourage the enrolment of children at schools, an initiative of Rs2,000 per family at time of enrolment whereas monthly stipend of Rs1,000 per child has been ensured along with provision of free education, books, uniforms and other educational facilities. As a result of this strategy, many children had been enrolled and more than 7,000 Khidmat Cards for cash transfers had been provided after due verification.

The financial support had convinced parents to send their children to school instead of to work.

The initiative was meant to make these children useful citizens of the society instead of making them work at brick kilns, workshops and other such places. The parents had been informed that the education expenses will be borne by the government.

Officials of the labour department said that they pulled these children out from workplaces and put them on track to acquire education. “These child workers were enrolled in private educational institution with a good reputation instead of government educational institutions to ensure that they get quality education,” an official working on the project said.

A delay in the release of educational expenditures may affect the education of these children and they may be forced into child labor once again, he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2018.

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