KARACHI, Oct 12: Representatives of civil society and labour organisations have demanded that labour department officials resume inspections of industrial units that they said would not only curb violation of industrial laws but would also act as a deterrent against child labour.

They expressed these views at a consultative meeting on child labour in the light of the 18th amendment to the constitution, organised by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) on Friday.The speakers said the minimum age limit for employment should be fixed as 18 years but if it was not possible then the government must ensure that no labourer below 16 years of age was hired.

They also urged the government to carry out a survey to find out the exact number of child labourers.

Country Director of Terre Des Hommes Abdul Salam Dharejo said that one out of eight children in Pakistan was involved in child labour.

He said children deprived of rights were vulnerable to be misled and fall into wrong hand and could be used by anti-social elements or even terrorists. He said that some of the would-be suicide bombers arrested by the law-enforcement agencies were children belonging to lowest income families.

“A major reason for an increase in the number of industrial accidents is a ban on labour inspections,” said Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation.

He added that due to regular inspections industrialists tried to follow the laws out of fear of being caught for violations until these were discontinued a decade ago.

Demanding immediate resumption of industrial unit inspections, he said that hundreds of people would not have fallen prey to the Baldia factory fire if the relevant laws were being implemented there.

Earlier, Sharjeel Soomro of Sparc said that surveys conducted by various NGOs put the current figure of child labourer somewhere between 11 million and 12 million, whereas the last such government survey, which was conducted in 1996, recorded around two million child labourer in the country.

He demanded that the government carry out a fresh survey to determine current statistics.

Sparc’s Gulnaz Zahid demanded that the minimum employment age be fixed at 16 years, while ensuring that parents send their children to schools as the government had already made education up to secondary school compulsory for children. “By the time a child completes Class X he will be 16 years old,” she added.