Provincial Minister for Labour and HR, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has lauded the role of UNICEF for its financial assistance of Rs. 50 million to eliminate Child Labour through its collaboration in Provincial Child Labour Survey, conducted by Punjab Labour & HR Department with a total ADP project cost of Rs. 140.187 million. The survey conducted at household and grass root level, will be completed in 18 months till May 2017.
He said this during a meeting with Chief Child Protection UNICEF Pakistan Sarah Coleman, here today. Child Protection Specialist UNICEF Pakistan Sohail Abbas, representative of UNICEF Lahore Chapter Dr. Noman Ghani, MPA Saira Iftikhar, Secretary Labour Ali Sarfraz, Project Focal Person Wahid Arshad, Dr. Javed Gill and other concerned officers attended the meeting. The meeting was informed that previously Child Labour Survey was conducted in 1996, however a huge increase in the number of industrial and commercial units has been observed during last few years which required an updated, authentic and credible survey regarding accurate facts and figures about child labour occurring in the province. Therefore, Punjab Government decided to initiate a provincial level survey with the partnership of Board of Statistics, measuring exact figures of child labour which will help to curb this menace from the society with concrete efforts of all the stakeholders. Chief Child Protection UNICEF Pakistan Sarah Coleman said that UNICEF will provide all possible financial as well as technical assistance to Punjab Government to eliminate Child Labour. She lauded the efforts of Punjab Government for its different projects initiated to eliminate all forms of Child Labour, particularly appreciating the Integrated Project to Eliminate Child & Bonded Labour from the province worth Rs. 5.2billion. Minister Labour Raja Ashfaq Sarwar informed UNICEF representatives regarding different programmes of Labour Department including a Rs. 180.832 million project to eliminate worst form of Child Labour, successfully continue in Jehlum, Layyah, Jhang and Chakwal to educate poor children, enabling them to get skill training and proper jobs hereafter.