LAHORE, Nov 16: About 25,000 children have been saved throughout the country from various forms of labour under a child labour elimination action plan.

They include about 6,000 to 7,000 children in the football and 500 in the surgical industries of Sialkot, 8,000 to 10,000 in the carpet industry, 1,080 in exploitative and hazardous labour, 720 in auto repair shops and street children and the rest of 6,000 to 7,000 children in informal sector like those working in restaurants, tea stalls, shops, etc.

A national policy and an action plan for the elimination of child labour was framed by the Task Force on Child Labour which was approved by the federal cabinet in May last year.

The plan aimed at immediate withdrawal of children from worst forms of labour, progressive elimination of child labour from all economic sectors, preventing entry of under-aged children into the labour market through universalization of primary education and family empowerment and rehabilitation of working children through non-formal education, pre-vocational training and skill development.

The plan had set a time frame for carrying out certain short term and long term activities. These activities were to be carried out by the provincial labour departments in collaboration with the education, social welfare and local government departments.

A fund for education of working children and rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers has been constituted with an initial amount of Rs100 million. The first meeting of the board of directors of the fund held recently discussed the priority areas of the projects, minimum contribution of each province and exploring further resources for the fund.

The board found that the implementation of the action plan was rather slow due to lack of financial resources and institutional incapacity.

Pakistan has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as far back as 1994 with the ILO to join the International Programme for Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). The MoU which was extended from Dec 31, 1996, to Dec 31, 2001 aimed at promoting conditions to progressively prohibit, restrict and regulate child labour with a view to eliminating it ultimately and increasing awareness in the national and international community.

The federal government has set up a national steering committee for consultation on the nature and scope of the activities to be undertaken, select action programme proposals, provide information and justification for the biennial programme and budget of the IPEC and establish procedures for the review of the ongoing programme within IPEC.

The ILO and IPEC are coordinating child labour elimination efforts by the government organizations, NGOs, trade unions, employers organizations and other agencies. Five major projects in football, carpet manufacturing, auto workshops, street children and surgical instruments were launched and surveys of children working in these sectors were undertaken to know the extent of the problem.

According to ILO-IPEC officials, they were facing two main problems in the implementation of the action plan and various projects under the plan — the low capacity of implementing agencies, specially NGOs, to deliver the assigned mandate on time and to follow procedures on financial management and periodic reporting. The other problem, they said, was the lack of sustainability of work initiated by the child elimination programme.

The Punjab government has also been invoking various labour laws like Factories Act, Shops and Establishment Ordinance and Employment of Children Act relating to child labour.

Under the Factories Act, about 6,500 inspections were carried out, about 2,800 people prosecuted and 1,800 convicted and a fine of about Rs500,000 was imposed from January 1999 to May 2001.

Under the Shops and Establishment Ordinance, about 68,000 inspections were carried out, 5,645 people were prosecuted and 3,000 convicted and a fine of Rs165,000 imposed.

Under the Employment of Children Act, about 2.5 million inspections were carried out, 9,545 people prosecuted, about 2,500 convicted and a fine of about Rs800,000 imposed.