Social justice, quality education can eliminate child labour: Alvi

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday said the challenge of child labour could be overcome by promoting social justice and ensuring the provision of quality education to children.

“World Day against Child Labour is observed all over the world to raise awareness for the prevention of child labour, and encourage stakeholders to speak against this social evil,” the president said in a message on the observance of the Day on June 12.

The president said that child labour was a growing curse in the world, as according to the United Nations, around 160 million children were forced into child labour. “Globally, one out of every 10 children is working.”

He said although child labour had been reduced on the international level, still there was a dire need for further efforts to eradicate the social evil.

The president emphasized that poverty, wars, terrorism and lack of access to education were the basic causes of child labour, adding that the basic causes needed to be overcome to completely eradicate the challenge.

He said poverty forced the families to get their children to engage in work at an early age.

Child labour, President Alvi said, deprived children from receiving basic education and access to health facilities. It exposed them to harmful and hazardous environments and clipped their basic rights to life and liberty, he added.

An estimated 27 million children did not go to school in Pakistan, he said, adding that in Pakistan, legislation was being made to eliminate child labour from the country.

He said in Pakistan, child labour was completely banned and the government was providing educational scholarships to discourage child labour and attract children towards education.

President Alvi stressed the need to speed up efforts to promote the protection of children’s rights and eliminate child labour from the country.

He also stressed that the government, society, private sector, media, employers and civil society should work together and play their due role in eliminating child labour in Pakistan.