LAHORE Labour and Human Resource Department, Punjab in collaboration with International Labour Organisation, in second phase has successfully launched the “School enrolment campaign for brick-kiln workers’ children of Lahore District” to materialise the dream of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for elimination of child labour from all the brick-kilns of the
By our correspondents
September 22, 2015
LAHORE Labour and Human Resource Department, Punjab in collaboration with International Labour Organisation, in second phase has successfully launched the “School enrolment campaign for brick-kiln workers’ children of Lahore District” to materialise the dream of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for elimination of child labour from all the brick-kilns of the province. Twenty-eight children of a kiln at Multan Road, Lahore were enrolled in Government Primary School Tipa Samad, Mutlan Road in the inaugural ceremony. Enrolment certificates, schools bags and books were distributed among them. A survey of 151 kilns of Lahore was conducted by Labour Department and 3,190 out-of-school children were notified. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony at Al-Hamra Hall here Monday, Provincial Minister for Labour and HR, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said the enrolment process throughout the district would be completed by 31st October. The Punjab government will provide free-of-cost education, school bags and books to the kiln workers children enrolled to these schools, he informed. Their continuous education process in these schools will be ensured through strict monitoring. According to the survey conducted by labour department, there are 3,190 out-of-school children of kiln workers in Lahore district who will be enrolled in different schools with the help of education department, he added. A monitoring follow-up mechanism to ensure the sustainability of the schemes has been ensured through district vigilance committees (DVCs), the minister added. He announced that this exercise would be replicated in all the 6,090 kilns of Punjab. He stressed upon NGOs to play their pivotal role for the cause of labour community and not for their own publicity. Stakeholders, children of brick kiln workers, district government officials and kiln owners were also present at this occasion. It is pertinent to mention here that on May 1st, in a ceremony, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had directed the Labour and Human Resource Department to enrol all children of kiln workers to schools within six months to eliminate child labour and make Punjab ‘child-labour free’.
