Punjab govt should honour child rights conventions: CRM

By launching a post card campaign the Child Rights Movement (CRM) Punjab has urged the provincial government to take immediate steps to notify Child Domestic Labor (CDL) in the list of banned occupations under the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011.CRM showed its concern over the growing incidents of violence against children working as domestic servants and has demanded the provincial government to take firm measures to check and respond to the situation.
During the post card campaign starting from August 30, five thousand post cards will be sent from different segments of life ie NGOs, parliamentarians, Civil Society and Academia to Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif demanding immediate ban on Child Domestic Labour. CRM Punjab is a coalition of more then 27 organizations working for the promotion and protection of child rights.
CRM Member and Child Rights Activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that the Child Domestic Labour was the contemporary form of slavery and violation of UNCRC, ILO convention 138, 182 and 189 ratified by the Government of Pakistan. Focal person of Punjab CRM Miqdad Naqvi said that Child Domestic Labour was not included in schedule of banned occupations and processes under the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011 despite of growing issues of murder and other abuse and exploitation with children. “CRM will continuously follow up the issue with concerned authorities till a ban is placed on CDL,” CRM member Sajjad Cheema said. CRM also demanded from Punjab government to properly implement the Article 25-A of the constitution to provide free and compulsory education to all children without any discrimination of age 5-16 years. The effective implementation of article 25-A will also help to reduce the admission of children in labour force.
Chief guest of this ceremony provincial minister for labour Haji Ehsan ud Din Qureshi said that the Punjab government was putting its efforts to curb the issue of Child Labour through sustainibale efforts and launched the campaign by signing the petition card demanding from chief minister Punjab to include the child Domestic Labour in banned occupations under the ECA.