RAWALPINDI  – Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB), Rawalpindi, has rescued 10 children found begging on city roads during this week.
According to the district officer CPWB, the children who are found begging on roads are taken into custody by the bureau as the rescue teams along with police regularly visit all city areas including Sadder Bazaar, Chore Chowk, Daewoo Bus Stand, Peerwadhai, Faizaabad, Murree Road, Airport, Scheme Three and other areas.
He informed that the children taken into custody from different areas were presented in the Child Protection Court for legal custody. Family tracing unit of the bureau makes efforts to find out parents of such children and on provision of an affidavit that the children would not be made beggars, handed over to them.
The official said people should come forward and play their role in this regard and information about such children should be given on child protection help line 1121. He claimed that Child Protection Bureau Punjab has played a vital role by handing over thousands of children who were run away or lost to their parents. Every citizen should play its due role and awareness should be created among citizens to make their children useful citizens of the country.
Meanwhile, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) will launch a national level ‘Child Labour Free Week Campaign’ from Monday, June 11 to 16 to highlight harms of child labour and promote collective efforts to tackle it.
Under the campaign being arranged to mark World Day Against Child Labour falling on June 12, the SPARC will arrange an orientation or discussion session on June 11 at the Islamabad Press Club.
The SPARC has called upon the federal and provincial governments to undertake effective legislative and administrative initiatives to address the growing prevalence of child labour in the country. In Pakistan, the employment of underage children in work activities, ranging from light to hazardous forms of labour, exists in a number of sectors with varying degrees of prevalence.
Recent estimates indicate that around 11-12 million children - half of them below the age of ten - are employed as child labourers across the country.
This is a serious cause for concern as underage employment undermines a child’s physical and emotional development. In Islamabad Capital Territory, children are found in begging, car wash, and domestic child labour and in workshops etc.
The situation of child labour is grave throughout the country and serious steps must be taken to tackle child labour.
International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pakistan has also chalked out programmes to observe World Day against Child Labour-2012. The day would provide a spotlight on right of children to be protected from child labour and from other violations of fundamental human rights.