Despite huge expenditure on child welfare projects by the National Commission on Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) under Social Welfare Ministry, about 11 million child labourers are working under hazardous conditions and are subjected to severe exploitation, assault and vulnerability.
Sources told this scribe here on Thursday that 264,000 children are working as child labour in four big cities, Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and almost 30 percent of them below 18 years are highly vulnerable.
The country is facing worst inflation, drop out rate in educational institutions is increasing gradually and people are compelled to send their children for labour in local hotels, restaurants and shops, they said. Unfortunately, the rate of child labour is increasing gradually and the street children sorting garbage, washing cars and begging are a sharp criticism for the government projects on child welfare, they said.
Sources said that the girl child is exposed to multiple vulnerability and the ministry is committed to protect them under the Convention on Ratification of Child Labour (CRC) and Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) would be a central point for dissemination of all relevant promotional materials on child labour, they said.
The ministry connects its safety net programme to families of child labourers through the Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal network as per National Social Protection Strategy, they said.
The ministry, Unicef and ILO has taken the initiative for development of communication/promotion materials with suitable images and messages that will be supported by many independent advertising agencies, the multiple television channels, radio as well as the print media, they said.
Sources said that the ministry has urged both manufacturing and services industries to step forward and use the stickers and messages on their products so that all consumer items carry the label about the campaign against child labour.
The ministry will identify some government and private schools to become active supporters of the campaign across provinces in all relevant local languages, they said.
Federal ministries, the provincial departments of education, literacy, social welfare, labour and child protection will be mobilised for the campaign and Punjab Child Welfare and Protection Bureau is a critical partner in this campaign and is ready to take the campaign forward, they said.
The ministry has committed itself to a National Social Protection Strategy, a child protection strategy to end violence against children both at the national and regional levels and 2008 is the landmark year for implementation of plans, they said.
The issue of child domestic labour is a part of government's mainstream agenda to end violence against children and to provide protection to children by helping them leave hazardous labour, they said.
Every fourth household of the country is guilty of child domestic labour and the girl child in Pakistan is very vulnerable. At least in two out of four provinces, Punjab and Sindh the majority of child domestic labourer are girls while in NWFP and Balochistan there is severe trend of child labour that needs further implementation of policies, they said.
The ministry is fully committed to eliminate child labour from the country and presented their charter of demands for protection and education of child labour. They said that the ministry is categorical in its support to non-governmental organisations to end the child labour menace and extend protection to child labourers adding that the parliament members must be mobilised for taking the issue forward with clarity and commitment.
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