November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Out of officially acknowledged 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan, some 11,000 may be lucky enough to be taken out of hazardous occupations over a period of four years as a new initiative was launched here on Wednesday.

On the launching ceremony of the National Time-bound Programme in Pakistan, the US government announced a grant of $4 million to be disbursed through International Labour Organisation (ILO) for elimination of the worst forms of child labour in the country.

The ILO’s country director, Johannes Lokollo, senior programme manager, Muhammad Saifullah, minister for education, Zobaida Jalal and minister for labour, Abdul Sattar Laleka, outlined the initiatives taken by their respective sides in their addresses.

Speaking on the occasion, the US ambassador, Nancy Powell, said the amount would be released over a period of four years to help rescue and rehabilitate some 11,000 children from hazardous occupations.

She said the US department of labour had supported the initiatives of ILO in Pakistan previously in four other projects with a sum of $12 million. She said the US government was also helping in the project of support of ILO with the Federal Bureau of Statistics to carry out a survey on child labour. The US department of labour is also providing funding to stop human trafficking in Pakistan, she added.

Expressing concern over the alarming situation of child labour in hazardous occupations, the ambassador said 51 per cent children in Pakistan had never attended school. She said the time-bound programme represented a deepening of relations between ILO, Pakistan and the US government.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the ILO director, Johannes Lokollo emphasised the need for close cooperation from ministries to link child labour programmes with poverty reduction strategies to bring the children out of what Mr Lokollo called “their lost opportunities.” He suggested the best way to eliminate child labour was to integrate child labour programmes with Education For All (EFA) and poverty reduction programmes.

Outlining the steps taken by her ministry, Zobaida Jalal, said a fund of Rs100 million was established for the education of working children.

She said targets of 8250 additional primary schools, rehabilitation of 100,000 education facilities, elementary education through double shifts, mainstreaming of maddressahs and expansion of non-formal and literacy programmes was being undertaken aggressively through all partners across Pakistan.

The minister briefed the gathering about steps taken at legislative and policy level for elimination of the worst forms of child labour in the country.

The ILO senior programme manager, Saifullah Chaudhry, said more than 60,000 child labourers had benefited since ILO’s International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) started in 1994. He said through a rapid assessment survey some 21,769 children were found involved in worst forms of child labour in six districts in the sectors of tanneries, surgical industry, manufacturing of glass bangles, coal mines, deep sea fishing and as rag-pickers.

Highlighting salient features of the time-bound programme, Mr Saifullah said framework of the initiative involved revision of legislation and enforcement, child labour monitoring across sectors, empowerment of child labourers families and awareness raising.

In his address, labour minister, Abdul Sattar Laleka, focussed on causative factors of child labour blaming rising poverty, low per capita income and rising population as causes for pushing children into child labour. He said unemployment and lack of opportunities make some young minds susceptible to become terrorists.