Punjab

Pakistan urged to take steps to eliminate child labour

ILO official calls for involving stakeholders to do away with forced labour

APP December 14, 2022

Hiring child labour is an old-time practice in the country, numbering in the millions. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:

As a member state of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pakistan should take steps to respect compliance with the international conventions on the elimination of child and forced labour, ILO Country Director (Officer in Charge) in Pakistan, Khemphone Phaokhamkeo, said while addressing a workshop for the elimination of child labour.

“A strong common collaboration among all the stakeholders is required to define and achieve the common goal of preventing child labour,” he said at the ‘National Consultative Workshop on Elimination of Child Labour in Agriculture/Cotton, Textile and Garment Value Chains in Pakistan', held by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the ILO, which concluded on Tuesday.

The workshop was held under the “CLEAR Cotton Project: Eliminating child labour and forced labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chains” (2018-2023). The project was mainly funded by the European Union.

Speaking on the occasion, the ILO Country Director said that fighting child labour is important for ILO and has been a priority since its establishment in 1919. Pakistan has also ratified 36 international conventions including the ones on the elimination of child and forced labour.

Pakistan is among the four countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Peru where the CLEAR Cotton Project is being implemented. In Pakistan, the project is being co-implemented by FAO and ILO.

The issue of child and forced labour in Pakistan requires our attention amongst the other three areas; Firstly, we need to ensure that all children have access to quality education; not only up to the primary level but till the time they attain the legal age of being eligible to work. Secondly, a healthy, safe and protected work environment must be provided for the youth. Thirdly, the poor should be protected under social safety nets and social protection.

All adults must be provided decent work so that they do not have to pull their children into work.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2022.