6 million children at risk of being exploited

More than 6 million children have been affected by the floods and 2.7 million children need immediate assistance.

LAHORE: More than 6 million children have been affected by the floods and some 2.7 million children are in need of immediate assistance.

This was told to a gathering of around 50 journalists from various newspapers and TV channels in a seminar that was aimed at media sensitisation.

The seminar was arranged by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Journalists for Democracy and Human Rights Pakistan (JDHRP), a countrywide network of journalists and a media think tank. The one-day seminar was held, at a local hotel on Saturday,  to highlight the need to protect flood-affected children from becoming victims of child labour.

The government should work with national and international humanitarian organisations to devise a joint strategy for the establishment of schools and the rehabilitation of flood affected families, he added.

Over 50 journalists participated in a broad based discussion regarding the role of media and the protection of flood affected children.

The seminar aimed to identify ways to encourage support and awareness initiatives for the education of flood affected children being used as child labourers. Senior Programme Officer ILO Muhammad Saifullah Chaudhry, chief reporter of an English Daily Nasir Jamal and Journalists for Democracy and Human Rights (JDHR) representatives spoke on the occasion.

Saifullah said the ILO had organised a series of media trainings and seminars to take journalists on board for serious issues related to child labour in a post flood situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.