KARACHI: The Sindh government has planned to educate and provide skills training to the children engaged in labour so that they could get formal employment after attaining appropriate age.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah while talking to a four-member Japanese delegation led by Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS) MD Mr Joji Tateishi.

He told the team that a survey was being conducted in collaboration with Unicef across Sindh to ascertain the number of children engaged in labour. The survey would be completed by the end of December 2019.

The CM said the Sindh Factories Act, 2015 prohibited children below the age of 14 years to work in a factory and that the government had allocated Rs96 million to provide technical education to them to facilitate their employment in the industrial sector. He asked the delegation to start dispensing technical training/basic education to the children involved in labour so that they could be made skilled workers.

Mr Shah said: “We are committed to eradicating child labour. During their education and technical training, we would offer them [children] some stipend to encourage them and utilise their services in the industrial sector,” he said.

Jamshoro had been declared as child-labour free district while other districts would also be freed from the menace in phases, the CM said and offered investment opportunities to the delegation, pointing out that Dhabeji Special Economic Zone being developed by the provincial government had great potential for investors.

Earlier, labour secretary Rasheed Solangi assured the CM that the survey would be completed by the end of December 2019. The government also had formed a task force to implement minimum wages and eradicate child labour, headed by the labour director and comprising prominent labour leaders and representatives from the Employers Federation of Pakistan and chambers as its members. The minimum wage has been fixed at Rs16,200 for unskilled workers while during current financial year, his government has fixed minimum wage at Rs17,500.

Investment secretary Ahsan Mangi briefed the delegation about the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone and invited them to visit the area while Labour Minister Murtaza Baloch also briefed the delegation on the measures taken by his department for the welfare of labourers.

Other members of the delegation included Prof Dr Hiroyuki Fujimura of Hosei University Tokyo and Mr Eiji Teshima, Mr Mahito Yoshimura.

The CM was assisted by the labour minister, investment secretary, labour secretary and Sindh Employees Social Secretary Institution (SESSI) commissioner Kashif Gulzar.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019