An amount of over Rs 635.7 million had been given as talent scholarships, death and marriage grants to the industrial workers families during the last six months.
Punjab Labour Minister, Muhammad Ashraf Khan Sohna said this while addressing a function held in the Township Industrial Estate for distribution of talent scholarships to the tune of Rs 4.19 million among the industrial workers' children getting education in different medical and engineering college and other professional institutes, here on Tuesday.
He maintained that the industrial workers' children would be given scholarships for getting education abroad. Besides reserving seats for industrial workers children in different professional educational institutes within country, students showing excelling performance would also be supported in getting education abroad by awarding scholarships for which the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) had enough funds. The students only had to work hard and show good results, and they would get full support for pursuing higher studies, he added.
Sohna said that the children's education would prove to be a catalyst for bringing prosperity to the doorsteps of the industrial workers and will be instrumental in changing their destiny.
He said that a campaign was being launched in the province to make the workers realise the benefits of getting their children educated and motivating them to bring their children to Workers Welfare Schools for taking advantage of free education facilities available there.
This campaign would be launched by the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and he (Sohna) would go to factories and labour colonies to persuade the workers for getting their children educated as solution to most of their problems laid in education of their children, he added. The workers would be motivated to send their children to schools instead of workshops, factories and hotels so that they also could become doctors, engineers and officers etc, he added. Later, the minister handed over scholarship cheques amongst the students.