May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 17: The number of children engaged in child labour in the country is estimated at 3.3 million according to official figures while unofficially it stands at eight million.

It was disclosed at a meeting with elected representatives organised by Society for Protection and Rehabilitation of Child (Sparc) and Sindh Participatory Organisation (SPO) on “protection of rights of vulnerable children” here on Saturday.

PPP MPA Humera Alwani, Protection Manager of Sparc Kashif Bajeer, office-bearers of Sparc Sadia Baloch and Mustafa Baloch, regional head Sindh Participatory Organisation (SPO) and others spoke on the occasion.

Humera Alwani said on the occasion that in consultation and with technical support of Sparc and SPO she would move a bill on Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 and Domestic Child Labour in the Sindh assembly.

Kashif Bajeer and Sadia Baloch in their joint briefing regarding the situation of children said that around 70 million children were under the age of 18 years in the country which included 35 million girls while 25 million of them are schoolchildren.

They said that approximately 4,000 children were languishing in jails that were already over-crowded.

Mr Kashif said that behaviour of jail administrations was not good with juvenile offenders.

In their briefing they said that according to the official figures there were 3.3 million child labourers while unofficially it was around eight million in the country.

They stressed the need that elected representatives at district level should raise their voice for tabling a child protection bill that would help safeguarding rights of children.

Mustafa Baloch, Regional Head of SPO Sindh said it was due to the corruption and nepotism that around 2000 schools are lying closed in Sindh while their buildings are serving as otaqs (landlord’s meeting place) or cattle pens.

He said that many infants were left at Edhi cradles while children were found in bonded labour paying the debts of their ancestors.

He said that although government was primarily responsible for taking measures to protect children against violence but society was also equally responsible for that and it could not absolve itself of its responsibility.

The station director of Radio Pakistan, Naseer Mirza, said that the Sparc was working for elimination of corporal punishment and to discourage dropout rate in educational institutions.

He said that Pakistan was still far behind from achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In his view child marriages was another factor for increase of dropout rate of girls from schools.