KARACHI, Nov 19: Participants of debate on elimination of child labour were of unanimous opinion that this critical issue be linked to socio-economic conditions and easy availability of inexpensive quality education. Until parents are unemployed or underpaid, their children would have to work, they argued at an inter-active meeting with media people here on Saturday. It was hosted by the Press Information Department at the PID office.

Saba M. Raza, Director, Federal Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, who has been working as project director with the International Labour Organization for the last two years, initiated the session as part of the series of meetings held with media people in other cities and towns of the country.

The ministry and ILO had launched a project ‘child work and media activism’ in 2003. Its first phase would be completed by the end of next month.

Briefing journalists, Ms Raza said the project had covered nine areas in 29 sectors declared hazardous for child labour by the government. The areas are: work inside underground mines and over-ground quarries, including blasting, and assisting in blasting; work on glass and metal furnaces; lifting and carrying of heavy weight, especially in transport industry (15kg and above); carpet weaving; working two metres above the floor; all scavenging, including hospital waste; deep-sea fishing, commercial fishing, seafood processing; surgical instrument manufacturing, especially in vendors’ workshop; and glass bangles and furnaces.

It was suggested that evening classes be arranged for those children and domestic servants at government schools who could not get education in morning hours.

Ms Raza said that during the fist phase of drive against child labour, 162 articles were published in dailies and journals of Urdu, English and Sindhi, as well as regional languages. Besides, commercials on radio, TV and street theatres, etc., were run.

In the second phase, she said, a project coordination committee would be set up with the main responsibility being policymaking for meeting the target effectively. A network would be developed for the entire media in the region to ascertain its role in social sector at national level.—APP