PESHAWAR, July 25: Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday called upon the government to implement International Labour Organisation’s conventions 138 and 18 which it had ratified to abolish child labour in the country.

The one-day capacity building workshop ‘Activating Media in Combating Worst Forms of Child Labour in Pakistan,’ was organised by the Media-Mark, an Islamabad-based NGO.

The workshop highlighted the problems of children they confronted with the worst form of exploitation.

Speakers said that children were being denied their basic right to education, health facilities and social security in the country.

They said that 3.3 million children, out of 40 million, were engaged in different forms of labour and were in dire need of assistance from the state-run welfare organisations and NGOs.

ILO representative in Peshawar Khalid Hasan, Mohammad Afzal Khan, NWFP information secretary Abdullah Shah, Saba Mohsin Raza, National Project Manager of ILO, Pakistan Workers Federation president Gul Rehman and noted columnist Javed Choudhry also spoke on the occasion.

PWF president Gul Rehman said in rural areas children were constrained to share the burden of labour with their parents.

He said that they were the main source of income for their poor families.

He said: “We are living in a multi-class society, based on exploitation and governed by the different exploitative classes.”

He said a just society, based on equitable resources and rule of law, could guarantee the abolition of child labour in Pakistan.

Mr Gul said: “The laws are there to abolish the child and bonded labour, but the government does not implement them despite having ratified the ILO conventions.”

He said the organisation had arranged 51 workshops for the working class people on the abolition of child labour in the province. ILO representative Khalid Hasan said the child labour could be eradicated through education and vocational training of children.

He said the project was being funded by the Switzerland government and executed by the ILO.

He said that the child labour referred to work which was mentally and physically harmful to children and cast negative effect on their schooling and social development.

He said accessibility, affordability, quality and relevance of education were essential for a child engaged in labour.

He said the ILO used to emphasise on quality and relevance of education at its training centres.