Child rights: Need for collective action to eradicate child labour stressed

LAHORE:

Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said on Thursday that every individual would have to play a pivotal role to rid society of child labour.

He said that the government had initiated a comprehensive Rs180.832 million-five-year programme to eradicate child labour in the Jhang, Jhelum, Layyah and Chakwal districts. Child Labour Elimination Programme Manager Muhammad Rehan Nabi said that the Labour and Human Resource Department had been providing free education to over 4,200 children across its 120 non-formal education centres in the first phase of the project.

He said that the department had launched a three-month literacy course and skill training programme for students between ages of 14 and 18 at 40 centres across the four districts in the project’s second phase. Nabi said that free toolkits were being distributed among trainees to enable them to secure their livelihoods.

He said that 10 model workplaces had been established across the districts in the third phase of the project. Nabi said various stakeholders including employers, trainees, industrial workers and students would be made cognisant of occupational safety and health measures by demonstrations and video briefings organised there.

Minister Sarwar expressed satisfaction with progress on the project. He ordered officials to quickly complete it to transform the CM’s vision of a Punjab free of child labour a reality.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2015.