Briefing session Millenium Development Goals
Awareness session among youth on combating Child Labour at GC University Lahore

Lahore, 12 December 2007

12 December 2007, The United Nations Information Center in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Economics Department of the GC University, Lahore , organized a special briefing session and presentation on 'Eradication of Child Labour through Human Resourse Development' , in the PG Seminar room of the GC University Lahore. The objective of the session was to raise awareness among the youth about the contributions and initiatives on eradication of poverty and child labour in the country.

Addressing the participants, Project Manager ILO-IPEC Taseer Alizai apprised about the various forms of child labour in Pakistan and detailed their causes and policy framework under the UN convention on the rights of the child. He said, we need to combat child labour through education and skills. He also discussed in detail the issues of child labour including internal and external factors and presented labor force survey of the year 2003-04. He further said that there are 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan and most of them are associated with the Glass Bangle Industry, Coal Mine Industry, Rag-Picking Industry, Surgical Instruments Industry and Tanneries Industries.

Taseer Alizai also briefed about the worst form of child labor. His presentation was followed by the National Information Officer of the United Nations Information Center Ishrat Rizvi presentation who said that poverty is a challenge in the developing countries like Pakistan . She also discussed the UN convention on rights of the child. The Director, Centre for the Improvement of the Working Conditions and Environment (CIWCE) Saeed Awan said on the occasion that we need to promote our educational sector in order to create awareness among the people about the menace of child labour.

He quoted the rapid progress made by Canada in the human development sector and urged to adopt proper educational paradigms to overcome this problem of the child labor in the country. Chairperson Economics Department of the GC University Lahore Prof. Sheikh Salahudin applauded the knowledge packed presentations of the guest speakers and hoped that the participants would have acquired useful information regarding poverty conditions and the child labor in the country. Prof. Asif Saeed of the Economics department of GCU conducted the proceedings of the program. (#)

 

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