The Punjab government has completed a detailed survey of brick kilns in Punjab. There are 6,600 total brick kilns in Punjab and 23,000 children reside in these kilns. Out of 23,000 children, 18,622 have been successfully enrolled in schools for education.
Punjab Minister for Labour and Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said this while addressing a labour inspection project.
The event was organised to inaugurate a new three-year technical assistance project of ILO to support the federal and provincial governments, employers and workers’ organizations.
The minister also announced to provide adequate resources to the labour inspection machinery for ensuring full and transparent labour inspection of all workplaces in the province. He thanked ILO and government of Netherlands for technical support in all important matters.
Speaking on the occasion, ILO’s Country Director in Pakistan Sherin Khan stated that labour inspection in Pakistan has gone through multiple transitions – from enforcement across the country to suspension in some provinces; and from centralisation to devolution. These changes have been barring the effectiveness of labour inspection system thereby resulting in fatal industrial accidents, Khan said. Sherin maintained that the fatal industrial accident like the factory fire in Baldia Town Karachi, which killed more than 250 workers and recent collapse of a factory in Sundar Industrial Estate Lahore could only be prevented by having in-place an effective labour inspection system.
Khan proposed that the effectiveness of labour inspection system in Pakistan could be improved by making up the human and financial resource deficit, institutionalising user-friendly labour inspection tools and addressing the data management and training requirements.
Other stakeholders including representatives from provinces of Khyber Paktunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh as well as Mines Department also talked and requested for the comprehensive approach towards labour inspection improvement.
[…] efforts are being made to improve things. Punjab government has successfully enrolled in school 18,622 children from brick kilns. However, it is a drop in the ocean of the problem. 360 schools were destroyed in Fata this year. […]
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