Punjab Labour Minister Haji Ehsan-ud-Din Qureshi said the government is committed to upgrading the socio-economic conditions of the labourers. He said the Punjab government launched a project at a cost of Rs 196 million to end bonded labour in brick-kilns. It will be implemented in the Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur districts. Talking to delegations of labourers, he said a special project had also been launched to strengthen law enforcement against internal trafficking and bonded labour in the province. He added that a project had already been initiated in Lahore and Kasur which would focus on the education of the children of brick-kiln workers and the provision of micro-credit services to the workers. He stated that 7,000 brick kilns workers’ children had been enrolled at non-formal schools in the Lahore and Kasur districts. Rs 75 million were provided as interest-free micro-credit to brick-kiln workers and the cases of over 5,700 workers’ applications for ID cards were also processed.
