Denied education: Govt criticised over low literacy rate

Almost 1.5 million children in Pakistan still living on the streets.

PESHAWAR: Talking to street children on literacy day, Imran Takkar, programme manager for the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) said that despite being 65 years old, Pakistan still did not have a 50% literacy rate.

In his speech, Takkar said that almost 1.5 million children in Pakistan were still living on the streets, while child labour has increased in the country as compared to other countries in the region.“The government’s lack of seriousness about child labour can be gauged from the fact that no data on the subject has been available since 1996,” he said. Citing an unofficial survey, he said that there were approximately 10.2 million child labourers in Pakistan. “The government should increase the minimum age of employment from 14 to 16 years, allowing children to avail their fundamental right to education in their earlier years,” he suggested.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2012.