LAHORE, Nov 15: Over 100,000 children between five and 14 years of age have been working in the carpet industry in the Punjab, said provincial Minister for Social Welfare Shaheen Atiqur Rehman here on Thursday.

They suffered from bronchitis, flu, bone and skin diseases. They should have been sent to schools for their own and nation’s better future, she added.

Poverty forced the parents to send their children to factories to share their burden, she said.

The parents should think that they were putting the future of their children at stake. They were sacrificing long-term benefits for short term gains, Ms Shaheen said.

The factory owners, she said, had been instructed to arrange for their education, too. They would be dealt with sternly if they failed to do so. This was one way to end child labour from the country, she said.