PESHAWAR, June 14: The government, civil society and political parties should join hands to support the poverty-stricken people so that they could send their children to schools.

This was stated by speakers at a seminar on child labour, which was arranged by the provincial directorate of labour in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

Those spoke on the occasion included Additional Secretary Labour Aftab Ahmed, Samia Gul, Mohammad Zahoor, Ali Akbar and others.

They talked about psychological impact of work on the children and prevalence of violence in the society and also gave suggestions to overcome such problems.

The participants said that poverty was the causative agent of child labour and there was utmost need to focus on increasing literacy level of the nation to help build a responsible society with secure future for new generation.

They suggested that the developed countries should come up with practical steps to eradicate child labour in the underdeveloped countries in order to control social problems.

They stressed the need for imparting education to children, saying that it was the only way to safeguard children against labour. They maintained that more educational institutions should be set up to equip children with modern education.

The speakers said that children involved in labour were mostly faced with psychological problems. Giving reasons for child labour, they said that mostly parents, under debts, would send their children to work. They said that the government policies were not so vibrant to help thwart child labour.

The secretary labour said that besides the government it was also the responsibility of other sections of the society to work for ending child labour.