Sindh-GPCCI cooperation: MoU on child labour, minorities, female capacity-building being implemented

A meeting was held to draw the action plan for implementation of the MoU signed by German-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GPCCI) and Sindh Government's Law Department. Iftikhar Ali Shallwani, Secretary Law, Qazi Sajid Ali, GPCCI president, Nadeem Kazmi, vice president and Saifuddin Zoomkawala, Ines Chabbi and Maira Junejo from GPCCI and Babar Adil, additional Secretary of Law Department Sindh attended the meeting. Carsten Mueller, Consul and Deputy Head of Mission at the German Consulate General, Karachi, also attended to demonstrate German government support.
Following the MoU, high profile projects are being earmarked to bring positive change mainly in the lower strata of the society. The scope of work will include affirmative actions to eliminate child labour, female capacity-building in public and private sector and diversity initiatives to bring minorities in the mainstream.
The menace of child labour is increasing due to rapid population growth forcing parents to send their underage children on menial underpaid labour jobs instead of school classrooms. Children fall easy prey to the greed and poverty of the social system because of stricter implementation of relevant laws binding parents to enroll their children in schools and due to increase in ratio of people living below poverty line, deteriorated government schooling system, exorbitant high cost of private education. A number of steps have been highlighted to motivate parents, small sized employers of apprentices to start formal or informal schooling of children.
The second part of the projects will lay emphasis on female empowerment in the public and private sector. Employers and Employees will be imparted special training to develop female workforce with improvements in skill set, provision of enabling environment to enhance career as well as adherence to local and international labour standards. Women working in the informal sector eg agriculture, domestic/cottage industry are completely absent in the workforce statistics. Strong measures will be proposed to include them in statistical database.
It was also noted at the meeting that minorities can play a vital role if they are provided with a level playing field. Biases, prejudices and victimization have created a sense of aloofness amongst the minorities. It is the need of hour to bring them to the mainstream workforce without any restrictions. In the first phase, available data will be assessed followed by dialogue with social organizations of Christians, Hindus and other relevant groups. The burning issues pertaining to minorities will be discussed and solutions will be proposed to the Government.
German-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, being the partner of the MoU, will play a key role in sharing the best practices from Germany. It will also provide links to ascertain mutual partnerships where possible. Qazi Sajid Ali, president of GPCCI said that learning from their partners in Germany would open new vistas for Pakistani counterparts. He said they were highly optimistic about the success of these unique initiatives and hoped to see the results in next few years.
Iftikhar Ali Shallwani, Secretary Law, Sindh, reiterated full support on behalf of the Sindh Government. "Much work needs to be done in our province specially in the rural areas," he said, adding that three main areas would receive enhancement in capacity-building thus improving the standard of living.