Pakistan has not conducted any child labour survey in 20 years even as the country faces the "worst" form of child labour where workers are subjected to physical and mental torture, a media report said today.
None of Pakistan's four provinces - Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan - was eager to conduct a fresh child labour survey even though the last one was conducted 20 years ago, Dawn reported.
Experts and officials at a seminar 'A child employed is a future destroyed' said useful social protection policies that were sensitive to children's needs were required in the country to eradicate child labour, the report said.
"Pakistan faced the worst form of child labour where workers were subjected to physical and mental torture," a speaker said.
In Pakistan, 25 million children were not going to school out of which 15 million were earning for their families through various forms of manual labour, the report said.
Child labour rehabilitation fund is required to be revived and child labour rehabilitation centres at the district level be established, speakers said.
The Employment of Children Act 1991 was abolished after the 18th amendment. The labour ministry in Sindh should adopt and move the provincial draft of Employment of Children Act Sindh for further process.
