12 June 2004	Saturday	23 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, June 11: Child rights organizations on Friday expressed concern over the increase in domestic child labour and stated that there was no law to regulate this form of labour.

According to a press release issued here, The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and Child Rights Committee, Charsadda, organized a consultation to commemorate the World Day against Child Labour in Charsadda.

The CRC's coordinator Sartaj Khan said that child labour was on the increase in all parts of the country including Charsadda. One of the worst forms of child labour, domestic child labour, was on increase and there was no legislation concerning this problem of modern-day slavery of children.

SPARC's Provincial Coordinator Jahanzeb Khan said that June 12 was celebrated as the World Day against Child Labour throughout the world. "The aim of celebrating the day is to draw the attention of nations to the bleak child labour situation and make a commitment to do more for this serious problem and take action for the elimination of child labour," he said.

"Legally, Pakistan is bound to take action and make proper plan of action for the gradual elimination of this problem since we have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) and the ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Form of Child Labour in August 2001," Mr Khan said.

By ratifying the Convention 182 the Government of Pakistan has committed itself to eliminate the worst form of child labour immediately. A process of identifying the worst forms of child labour had been started by the government and the ILO and a list of 29 hazardous occupation have already been finalised.

But it had not been notified under the schedule of banned occupations of the Employment of Children Act 1991, said Mr Khan. He further said that the number of child labour had increased from 3.3 million as some unofficial sources put it as high as 8 million.

He suggested that district and tehsil councils should include child labour as an issue in their labour committees and make sure the implementation of Employment of Children Act 1991.

Tehsil Charsadda Nazim Syed Masoom Shah said that child labour was one of the major problems faced by Pakistan and "we should take this seriously." He said that poverty was one of the main reasons of spreading child labour.