PESHAWAR, March 16: About 30 working children here on Tuesday cited non-availability of free education and corporal punishment by teachers as some of the major causes of child labour, and urged the government to try to do away with the causes.

The children were expressing their views at a programme arranged by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) for selecting suitable children for the Children's World Congress on Child Labour to be held in Italy in May.

Five hundred children from across the world, including 12 working children from Pakistan, will participate in the congress which will be held under the aegis of Global March Against Child Labour. Out of 12, six children will be selected from Punjab, four from Sindh and two from the NWFP.

After day-long activities, the judges shortlisted 10 names out of which two will be finalized later keeping in view the criterion given by the organizers of the congress. It is mandatory that the selected child should be or has remained a working children and his or her age be from 13 to 17 years.

The top three selected children belonged to the schools of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF). Other selected children were from the National Centre for Rehabilitation of Child Labourer run by Baitul Maal Department and Mashal Centres for child labourers started by the Human Resource Management and Development Centre (HRMDC).

The selected children are: Ms Naila Amir Nawaz, Ms Nageena Anwar, Ms Wagma Khan, Kifayat Ali, Bukhtiar Khan, Iftikhar, Ms Fahmeeda Ahmed, Idress, Ibrar and Ziarat Gul.

The children participated in debate, quiz competition and group work, and on the basis of their overall participation their performance was evaluated. Most of the children said poverty was the major cause of child labour.

However, they added, lack of education facilities for poor children also contributed towards the menace of child labour. One of the participants said: "Nobody treated me kindly, even my own parents, and the first thing I remember in life is my engagement in a brick kiln where my parents used to work."