KARACHI, Feb 16: Speakers at a function on Saturday said unless the government and non-governmental organizations joined hands the ever growing menace of child labour could not be effectively checked in the country.

They were speaking at the launching ceremony of an education-cum- vocational training programme for working children and technical training programme for the workers and their children, organized jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Skill Development Council (SDC).

Federal labour minister Owais Ahmad Ghani offered the organizers that they could use the technical and vocational training centres and infrastructure facilities of the government to provide trainings to the working children.

He said it was a fact that poverty was one of the major reasons behind child labour, besides explosive growth of population. “The menace is present in almost all the developing countries, but there is no reason that it should be allowed to remain prevalent in the country,” he added.

Mr Ghani said the previous governments had been pushing the issue under the rug by saying that it did not exist in the country at all. “Unless you accept a problem you can not take any step to solve it.”

He said the present government had accepted that child labour did exist in the country and with assistance from the international donors, like the ILO, various projects were being implemented to rehabilitate the working children.

Other speakers on the occasion said that the SDC was operating three centres where over 115 working children were being provided technical training in auto-mechanic course.

It is a two-year course and for three days these children are taught primary level course and for the three days they are given technical training. The children work in the workshops in the morning and in the afternoon they come to the centres.

After two years, these children would get primary certificate as well as a certificate that they have completed the mechanic’s course, so that when they enter the job market they could earn a better livelihood.

So far the centres had been opened for boys only, but soon similar centres for girls would also be opened. They said that the children were provided with uniforms, reading materials, etc. free of charge at the centres.

They said about 50 per cent of the 140 million population of the country was under 18 years of age, and majority of them was not going to schools and their population was increasing by three million a year.

Another project that was initiated by former federal labour minister Omar Asghar Khan to provide training to over 10,000 children had been delayed after resignation of the minister. They urged the government to revive the programme so that the children could benefit from it.

An education department official suggested to the organizers that the government had earmarked Rs10 million for informal education and they could approach the department with their proposal so that it could be considered.

A street theatre group staged a short play highlighting the issue of child labour.

Ahsanullah Khan, Nazar Mahar, Prof Shafi Malik, Abdullah Khadim, Kaneez Fatima, Arshad Jillani and others also spoke on the occasion.