World Day Against Child Labour observed

PESHAWAR: The Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC) marked the World Day against Child Labour (June 12) by arranging activities at its four centres for street children in Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad and Multan.

The global theme this year was to promotion of health and safety at workplace. The SPARC conducted safety and protection-related sessions with the employed children of its centres. It raised awareness about the importance of health and hygiene. SPARC held a meeting with stakeholders of automobile, workshops and other employers who have engaged children in work.

The Centre for Street Children (CSC) Peshawar arranged awareness session and a street walk in the community about child labour and its effects on society. The purpose was to guide them about the consequences of employment of children and how it can be hazardous for them. The children as young as 7- 8 years old are involved in child labour and are subjected to long working hours, little rest and vulnerability to physical, mental and sexual torture.

The CSC Manager Suhail Akhtar added that in Pakistan, no child labour survey had been conducted since 1996 and the last estimated statistics were 3.33 million child laborers in Pakistan. He said Pakistan had been ranked number 3 in the world in prevalence of slavery with the highest (Global Slavery Index - 2013).

Whereas based on the national Labour Force Survey 2010-2011, a publication titled Understanding Children's Work (UCW) in South Asia by ILO, UNICEF and World Bank indicated that 5.7 million 10-17-year-old, representing almost 20 per cent of all children in the age group, are involved in labour in Pakistan.

In 2017, some efforts were initiated across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. However the most substantial effort was taken by government of Punjab which completed the data collection tasks with the help of UNESCO.

The official said there has been a widespread deprivation of rights of children engaged in domestic work, the SPARC has called on the government to ratify C189 -- Domestic Workers Convention so we can have adequate laws for regulation of not only child domestic labour but also domestic labour in general.

He said the SPARC looked forward to the execution of child labour survey at the national level in Pakistan with an aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goal target 8.7 of ending all forms of child labour by 2025 and target 8.8 of safe and secure working environments for all workers by 2030 as achieving these goals will benefit the next generations of the work force.