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Govt pledged to eliminate child labour: Omar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Omar Asghar Khan on Tuesday said the government is committed to eliminate child labour from the country.

He was addressing a special meeting of Task Force on Child Labour at the auditorium of Planning and Development Division here Tuesday.

He said child labour is a multidimensional problem and the government is committed to address it from that aspect. He pointed out that socio-economic set-up in the country has given power and wealth to a few.

The incidence of child labour is mostly due to economic constraints and deprivations, traditional employment practices, family business skill transformation, work culture, insufficient education facilities.

He said steps are under way to bring about drastic structural changes and devolution of power to protect the right of the poor and enable them to take part in decision-making.

He said national plan of action and policy for the elimination of child labour will be finalised shortly after discussion and consultations. The government is trying to implement programme to withdraw and rehabilitate child workers, he added.

He said globalisation has promoted inequities and "we are all part of that because today one-fifth of the richest people, control 86.2 percent of global GDP and poorest one-fifth people only control 1.3 percent global incomes, production and services. This is a very sad situation", he remarked. He said the inequities increased over the last decade and have not gone down.

He said poverty alleviation strategy and addressing the issues of inequity are crucial, and that the government is committed to resolve these problems which cause deprivation and give power to influentials who then manage and control the local administration and the police.

He advocated for free education at primary level and said the schools without teachers, unattractive curriculum without using mother language are some of the factors which contribute to drop-outs.

To the issue of child labour, he said it is linked with the problem of unemployment. Elaborating his point, he said, if the father and the mother do not get employment, they will not be ready to withdraw their children from jobs.

"We are in the driving seat. We should not be defensive. We must not absolve ourselves from responsibilities," he remarked.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of NGO's, labour unions, donor agencies and diplomats.

A.W. Tabani, President, Employers Federation of Pakistan; Karamat Ali, Director Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research; Anees Jilani, Chairman, SPARC; Johannes Lokollo, Director, ILO; Khadija Haq, President, Human Development Centre; Mr Justice Shafiur Rahman, Chairman, Commission of Labour Laws and former judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan, also addressed the audience. PPI