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Da Hawwa Lur arranges meeting on child labour

Sunrise Today National 2020-Jun-18

Staff Reporter

PESHAWAR: Da Hawwa Lur, a non-government organisation, arranged a consultative meeting of different NGOs on Wednesday about the impacts of Covid-19 on child labour in connection with the World Day Against Child Labour.

CEO, Da Hawwa Lur, Khursheed Bano, while expressing the importance of World Day Against Child Labour, said that there were 22 million children out of school in Pakistan, whereas the ratio of child labour had always been high, adding that the current lockdown made the children more vulnerable as they were losing the educational opportunities.

Shawana Shah, Program Manager, Da Hawwa Lur, stated that the low level of income and financial problems in the families were increasing the likelihood of child labour. She stressed on the need to convince the public and private schools to ensure at least the basic education of the out of school children to eradicate the menace of child labour from the society.

Mukammil Shah, Program Director, Da Laas Gul, said that Pakistan was already facing bleak in the education sector but the prevailing lockdown had worsened the situation more and more. He mentioned that due to Corona pandemic, those children who were working in small workshops and shops etc. were left out for begging on the streets which could lead to increase in the percentage of child abuse and other social evils.

Qamar Naseem, Program Coordinator, Blue Veins, told the meeting that law and policy over child labour exists in the country but unfortunately there was no implementation as such in this regard to stop the child labour.

Imran Takkar, Project Coordinator, Group Development Pakistan, said that although Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government had taken credit for introducing the first-ever Child Labour Policy, however, the policy was only a blossom on paper and nothing was visible on the ground, adding that in fact the legislation regarding the child rights protection was made by the KP assembly in 2010 but the government had failed to implement it.