Eid gifts distributed among children of slum area

Islamabad

In order to commemorate World Labour Day and share Eid celebrations with slum children, the National Child Protection Centre (NCPC) organised a gift distribution event in which gifts were distributed among vulnerable and needy children of slum area of Islamabad.

Each year on June 12, the World Labour Day brings together governments, employers and workers organisations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.

To achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 8.7 which aims to 'eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour' by 2030, there is a need to intensify and accelerate action to end child labour, including in areas affected by conflict and disasters. Across the world, hundreds of millions of children who should be in school are forced to work, often in dangerous conditions.

As Ministry of Human Rights is mandated to fight child labour in Pakistan, boost access to education and strengthen child rights, the event was an effort to highlight the issue and involve the stakeholders for a collective strategy in this direction. Secretary Ministry of Human Rights Rabia Javeri Agha was the chief guest on the occasion and distributed Eid gifts (Dresses) among the children who belonged to a background that has close links with social evils like beggary and forced labour.

“On this day, we reaffirm our commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's target to end child labour in all its forms by 2025. In order to achieve this target, Pakistan has taken certain initiatives that are focused to address the Child Rights and Child Protection issues,” said NCPC Director Saira Furqan. 

To achieve the goals of elimination of child labour, the National Child Protection Centre has also launched a project “Piloting of Child Protection Mechanism in Islamabad with Local Government” in two Union Councils of Islamabad i.e. UC Jangi Syedan and Markaz G-8 with financial support of Plan International Pakistan. The goal of project is to pilot Child Protection mechanism in local government in two UCs in ICT with local government and Objectives are to Sensitization of local representatives on child rights and child protection.

For capacity building of NCPC staff, a three-day Capacity building workshop on “Case Management” and development of referral mechanism for National Child Protection Centre and Women Crises Centre staff has also been organised, in which fifteen staff members of NCPC and Women Crisis Centre staff participated.

The objective was to take stock of the existing case management practices by NCPC and exploring strengths and areas for improvement. To build capacities of NCPC and Women Crisis Centre staff to better understand Case Management in child protection, so to be able to promote and introduce good practices in their respective work. To develop better understanding of challenges for case management.