SWABI, Nov 24: Thousands of children in the NWFP remain deprived of education with the dropout ratio of school-going children increasing fast.

This was stated by the provincial coordinator of the Convention against Child Labour, Roohal Amin, while speaking at a programme on 'Builders of tomorrow' here on Tuesday.

He said that among the deprived children 60 per cent were girls. Each year about four million children were dropping out of schools because of various reasons, he said.

Mr Amin said that child rights committees (CRCs) have been formed in 18 out of the 24 districts of the province and the network would be further expanded. He said that according to the International Labour Organization 1.05 million children were victims of child labour in the province and majority of them were forced by different circumstances to earn livelihood for their families.

He said that there were 500 children in Swabi, Peshawar, Haripur, Kohat, D. I. Khan and Mardan prisons, whereas 60 innocent children remained behind bars along with their mothers.

Society for Protection of the Rights of Child coordinator Rashid advocate said that one of the main causes of leaving education was corporal punishment in schools, but with the efforts of welfare bodies the government had issued a fresh notification, prohibiting physical punishment in educational institutions.

He said: "We arranged workshops to educate the teaching community and children about the negative impacts of corporal punishment. We got a very encouraging response."

District Nazim Jehan Zeb Khan said that the main cause of child labour was poverty. He asked NGOs to accelerate their activities. He said poverty eradication could end the menace of child labour. The district nazim and union council nazims who spoke on the occasion assured the welfare bodies of their cooperation.