Wordsworth has said: “The child is father or the man.” Children are our future. Now when they are so important, we must realize what are doing for them. Have we succeeded in providing them the basic necessities of life such as education and health care? Although the government NGOs and other organizations are busy in solving the problem of child labour yet nothing seems to have come out of their work. Poverty is the main case of this failure. The poor parents are forced to push their children into practical life at an early age. Such children face a life of hardship and deprivation.
The government and non-government organizations (NGO’s) should take some steps to tackle with this problem of child labour. The government should enact a comprehensive law for the elimination of child labour from its very roots It should create a welfare fund exclusively for the development and welfare of children. It should declare that child labour below fifteen years of age is a criminal offence.
EHTISHAM ASHRAF MALIK,
Chakwal, February 22.