OKARA City News

Action against kiln owners condemned

From Our Correspondent

OKARA: Brick Kiln Owners Association district president Sheikh Salman Azhar has condemned action against the kiln owners under the Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Ordinance 2016.

Addressing a press conference at the press club here on Tuesday, he said that it was not the responsibility of the kiln owners to provide education to the workers’ children. He said that the kiln workers did not have CNICs. He said that they also did not have birth certificates of their children as they were not registered in union councils. He said that the kiln workers did not send their children to schools due to financial constraints. He said that there were many instances when police arrested children playing around the kilns, assuming them as labourers.

He said that police booked Haji Abbas Rehmani, a brick kiln owner, and a manager for putting two children Faisal Ayub, 5, Wasim Akram, 8, on labour whereas the reality was that the owner had established a non-formal school on a land beside the kiln, which was registered with the Literacy Wing of the Education Department. He said that presence of the two children had been marked in the school register. He said that he had got 24 girls and 32 boys admitted to different government schools. He said that the lists of the admitted children had been provided by the school heads the Renala Khurd assistant commissioner.