Awards ceremony: ‘Even a single child in the workplace is one too many’

Child labour highlighted through photography competition.

ISLAMABAD: A national photography competition was held to encourage professionals, students and amateur photographers to offer an insight on child labour in Pakistan.

Pictures that made the finals went up on display here at the ILO building on Tuesday. Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, the ambassador of the European Union Delegation, was the chief guest.

Wigemark said, “Millions of children in Pakistan suffer under a system of child labour that also includes bonded labour ... these initiatives change perceptions on involving children in work and help mobilise the public to act against child labour.”

The competition was organised by the Combating Abusive Child Labour (CACL-II) project, which is a joint European Union-ILO project pushing for the minimum age for employment to be set at 14 years.

On the occasion, ILO Officer-in-Charge Margaret Reade Rounds reiterated that “one child in the workplace who should be in school is one child too many!”

Other participants noted that employers in favour of child employment justify it under the reduction in production cost of many export commodities. However, each speaker said, child labour actually encourages poverty.

“For every child that is employed and deprived of the right to an education, there is an adult that remains unemployed,” said Pakistan Workers Convention Secretary General Zahoor Awan.

Haji Mohammad Javaid, the president of the Employers Federation of Pakistan, emphasised on the need for adult workers’ fundamental rights. “When the minimum wage is strictly implemented, no father or mother will send their child instead of themselves to work,” he said.

Later, a short skit directed by Shireen Omar featuring young children had many delighted. The young ones aptly portrayed a rich child’s dilemma of having no friends and eventually becoming friends with a little girl who works in his house.

She, in turn, introduces him to her friends who all work in various workshops. Realising their expert skills and potential, the young boy’s father offers to educate all the young children.

The play had the audience clapping and cheering on as the little girls and boys broke into a dance routine at the end.

Finally, the winners of the photography competition were announced. In the professional category, Malik Shafiq Awan won first prize, with Raja Zulfiqar and Arif Hussain Soomro winning the second and third positions respectively.

In the students category, Abdul Rauf won first prize and received a hearty applause when the crowd heard he had travelled 15 hours from Balochistan to get there, while Mohammad Kamal won second the place and Mohsin Javaid came in third.

Anwer Adil received first prize in the general public category, while Mohammad Shafeeq Bhatti came in second, and Daud Batozai and Tahir Saleem tied for third place.

An exhibition of the photos will also be held at the PNCA from October 11 to October 14.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2012.