June 6, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 5: USAID will provide $100 million during the next five years to support the education programmes in Pakistan, US ambassador to Pakistan Nancy Powell said on Thursday.

She was speaking at the launching of SPARC’s Annual Report on the State of Pakistan’s Children 2002 and its documentary on child labour, ‘The Silent Scream’, at a local hotel.

Ms Powell said expanding educational opportunities for children in Pakistan was the best way to fight child labour.

“We are committed to assisting the Pakistani people in all aspects of the struggle to put an end to child labour,” she said.

She said it was encouraging to recall that many nations facing problems similar to those faced by Pakistan had successfully eliminated child labour.

The ambassador said in Pakistan, the US Department of Labour had committed $10 million over several years to programmes aimed at improving core labour standards and increasing economic opportunities.

In the fiscal year 2002, the US committed $5 million to combat child labour and $1.5 million to workforce education and skills training in the NWFP, she said.

“We also support the International Labour Organization’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC), in its efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Pakistan,” she added.

Ms Powell said the US Department of Labour was the largest supporter of ILO/IPEC, and had committed $3.5 million to support its programmes in Pakistan.

She said Pakistani government also deserved credit for the progress made on child labour policies. She said the May 2000 “National Policy and Action Plan to combat Child Labour” and the decision to ratify ILO convention No 182 on the worst forms of child labour were substantive steps in the right direction.

The adviser to the prime minister on women development, social welfare and special education, Nilofar Bakhtiar, said unless children were brought up in a conducive environment, “we cannot expect them to grow up a useful youth force for our national development”.

“It is sad to note that most of our children do not have access to basic amenities of life. They have been deprived of access to education, health, nutrition and other intellectual, social and physical stimuli necessary for their growth,” she said.

Ms Bakhtiar said studies had shown that poor child care not only led to increased risk of mortality and disability, it also resulted in stunting, poor school performance and intellectual under-achievement.

According to child labour survey conducted by Federal Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with Ministry of Labour and International Labour Organization (ILO), there are about 3.3 million children involved in child labour in Pakistan.

She said out of these, 2.4 million were boys and 0.9 million girls, and at least half of these children were under the age of 10.

The adviser said the government had taken a number of measures to deal with these problems. The Ministry of Health has been successfully running the vaccination campaign against childhood infectious diseases and was also executing child nutrition programmes while the education ministry had started ‘Education for All’ programmes, focussing on education of children. The labour ministry had taken a number of legal measures to deal with the issue of children labour, she added.

‘Tiwana Pakistan’ programme of the Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education specifically focussed on education and nutritional requirements of girl child, Ms Bakhtiar said.

In his welcome speech, National Coordinator of SPARC Anees Jillani said issues like child labour, education and violence could not be resolved through projects. He said projects targeted a particular group whereas programmes benefited the maximum number of people and were long-term. Therefore, a macro-level approach is needed so that all children benefit, he said.

Dr Kaiser Bengali, the managing director of Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), said there were three Pakistans. One for the people, the other for the civil elite and the third for the military elite. He said unless there was one Pakistan, “we cannot have a just society”.