LAHORE, June 17: The launching of programme for the elimination of child labour in Pakistan has been delayed.

The programme was planned to be launched on the first International Day against Child Labour on June 12 but delayed due to delay in the finalization of the consultations in this regard between the International Labour Organization and the federal government.

The worst forms of child labour defined in the ILO Conventions will be eliminated first followed by other forms as agreed between the government and the ILO, Child Labour Resource Centre project coordinator Saeed Ahmad Awan told Dawn.

He said child labour problem was complex and required a pragmatic approach, personal commitment, community determination and national action. There was not only the problem of child labour in the formal sector like factories, small industrial units and shops but a very large number of children were employed as domestic servants and agricultural labourer in the informal sector.

Mr Awan said the government had signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN for the implementation of the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour in 1994 and the Punjab Labour Department had sent 7,500 children working in football industry in Sialkot to schools by establishing stitching centres where their mothers could also work. A similar exercise had been undertaken in the carpet industry and 108 schools had been established in Gujranwala where 9,000 children were being educated.

He said child labour had a learning aspect along with a human aspect. A large number of children learnt different vocations like automobile repairs, garments stitching, tyre and tube vulcanizing, lathe work and salesmanship while working at the shops and workshops. They earned and learnt at such places simultaneously. Prolonged working hours at such places was the only problem, he added.

He said the Child Labour Resource Centre was collecting and maintaining the basic data about the health and education of the children in Pakistan. Of 141.2 million population, 22.2 million were children under five and 68.2 million under 18 years of age.

He said about 246 million children of ages between five and 17 — a number nearly equal to the population of the US — were involved in labour. Nearly three quarters of the child labourers — about 180 million — were exposed to the worst forms of child labour. The number equalled one out of every eight children in the world.

He said about 110 million children engaged in hazardous work were under 15. Of them, around 8.4 million were trapped in the most abhorrent forms of child labour like slavery, drug trafficking, prostitution, pornography, etc. These forms of labour were totally unacceptable for children under any circumstances and required to be outlawed immediately.

Mr Awan said the largest number of working children under 14 years of age — 127 million — was in the Asia-Pacific region. Roughly 2.5 million children were economically active in the developed countries, 2.4 million in developing countries, over 17 million in Latin America and Caribbean, 48 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and more than 13 million in Middle East and North Africa. Among all the world’s working children, most were in the informal sector where they did not have any legal protection.

Giving details of the enforcement of the legislation relating to child labour in the Punjab, Mr Awan said 610 factories were prosecuted for employing children out of 1,959 inspected in 2001. A total Rs179,000 fine was imposed on 585 found guilty after trial.

He said 3,190 shops and other establishments were prosecuted for employing children of the 34,321 inspected during 2001. Of them, 1,042 units were fined Rs130,000 who were found guilty by the courts. Of 104,800 premises inspected for suspect violations of the Employment of Children Act, 2,313 were prosecuted. The courts imposed Rs227,000 fine on 718 after trial.