June 13, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1427

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PESHAWAR, June 12: Children working in auto workshops are paid very low wages despite the fact that they have to work for longer durations and are sometimes subjected to even corporeal punishment by their “Ustaads” for minor mistakes, said children doing labour in Peshawar and its suburbs.

“Head mechanic often beats me and other boys when we are learning to work. Out of Rs10 I get every day, I spend Rs3 on bus ticket, give Rs5 to my mother and buy myself a chewing gum for Rs2 because it is the only thing I can chew all the day,” said 14-year-old Laal Bacha, working as a motor-mechanic for nine years, who had displayed a banner carrying slogan against child labour at a ceremony at the Nishtar Hall on Monday.

The ceremony entitled “the end of child labour, together we can do it” was organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in connection with International Child Labour Day in collaboration with its social partners the Job Creating Development Society, the Paradise, the Pakistan Patriotic Association, the De las Gul and the provincial labour department.

“I, however, spare some time to attend an informal school because I want to learn writing and reading and save myself and my Ustaad from embarrassment in front of customer,” he said, adding that children usually work from 8 am till late night and he had to take permission from his employer to attend the school for few hours.

Children studying in informal schools run by the Peshawar and Nowshera-based NGOs performed plays and sang songs depicting the problems faced by child labourers and their aspirations for a better future.

The menace of bonded labour was depicted as an evil spirit haunting child labourers. The moral of the play was that the menace could be only eliminated if all the people worked against it.

Bacha’s friend and co-worker Lutfullah, 13, said that he had been working as an auto-mechanic for four years. His father Ainullah is a carpenter and has injured himself many times during work so he has sent Lutfullah to be trained as a motor-mechanic.

“I was very upset in the beginning as my Ustaad used to beat me if I committed any mistakes during work,” Lutfullah narrated his work experience at a workshop on Peshawar-Charsadda road. He is given Rs10 per day and he spends almost all the money to buy bus ticket as he comes from a far-off village.

12-year-old Shams, also son of a carpenter, said he had been learning welding for three months and it had been horrible experience for him.

“I can’t sleep due to eyesore caused by welding spark unless my mother puts some wet mud on my closed eyes to soothe them,” said Shams.

He said he had even burnt his hand many a times during welding but if he did not work properly his Ustaad, would beat him. He said he got only five rupees per day of which he spent four rupees as bus fare and gave one rupee to his younger brother.