PESHAWAR: The participants of a training workshop on Thursday asked the government to empower local bodies to prevent child labour and ensure enrolment of the maximum number of out-of-school children.

The thee-day event titled ‘Strengthening Key Peace-Building Stakeholders in Pakistan’ was organised by the Individualland Pakistan, a civil society organisation, at a local hotel.

Most of the participants were the elected representatives of local government bodies from Nowshera and Peshawar, who said they had failed to live up to the people’s expectations due to lack of powers.

Nazim of Peshawar’s Gulberg area Kifayatullah Masood said the government should adopt sustainable policies to control child labour and counter extremism.

He said most of the people used in extremist activities were youths but the government didn’t have any sustainable plan to make them useful citizens of the society.

Another nazim, Razaullah Khan, said there was no awareness among the community of the use of contaminated water and thus, leading to the spread of diseases like hepatitis, dengue, and pregnancy complications.

He said the government should identify issues, take community on board to overcome the real issues confronting the people.

The nazim stressed the need for better public awareness and said the local bodies’ representatives should be empowered to resolve the issues pertaining to the supply of clean drinking water, enrolment of children in schools and provision of healthcare facilities.

A youth councillor from Nowshera, Sahibzada Khan, appreciated the initiatives saying it helped enhance the youths’ capacity in countering violent extremism.

He said lack of knowledge or vague knowledge on religion was the main reason for the youths taking part in extremist activities.

Another participant highlighted the importance of enhancing the skills of the children along with providing them with basic education to handle the issue of child labour.

Trainers Rana Mashhud and Anum Khan informed participants that the focus of the event was mainly on the need to prioritise the issues.

They said educational reforms were much needed in light of the child labour issue.

The trainers said the issue could be annexed in the reforms by allocating a portion of budget to present incentives to the needy families.

They said Individualland Pakistan would conduct more such events to bring all stakeholders on a single platform to chalk out a collective way forward to counter extremism.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017