The workforce in carpet industry which generated $200 million through exports in 2005 comprise most vulnerable, marginalised and dispersed population which also included children, says a recent study conducted by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) on Bonded Child Labour in the carpet industry of Thar. At least 40 per cent of the workforce in carpet weaving are children, the report said.

IMPHAL, July 29

Around 99 percent of water supplied to the population is unfit for human consumption due to which over 200,000 children under five die from diarrhoea, typhoid fever, cholera and hepatitis A and E every year. Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) scientist Hifza Rasheed said this during a five-day training workshop titled "The challenges of sustainable water supply services' organised at the PCRWR Headquarters here on Monday. Sponsored by the Dutch government, the workshop was attended by a large number of mangers of water supply agencies from across the country.

Changes in the mentality of people are palpable after implementation of Ladli Laxmi Yojana scheme. The desire of a male heir by families is being abandoned -AA Farhan

The state government had launched Ladli Laxmi Yojana with a view to creating positive thinking about girls among the masses, improvement in gender ratio and improving standard of education and health of girls apart from laying a solid foundation for their future. The novel scheme has yielded very good results within a short span of one year.

The United Nations Education, Social and Cultural Organisation's latest findings on the impact of socio-economic inequalities on primary education underscore the need to widen the current focus on raising enrolments in schools to include issues related to the learning environment. Although ensuring that children go to school has been a key element in the strategy to combat child labour, consolidating the gains from near-universal primary enrolment calls for a concerted effort in several related areas.

AHMEDABAD: The state government has resolved to free the state from child labour by 2010 and has prepared a state action plan towards this goal.

As part of this project, a three-day training programme

The Centre has decided to adopt a somewhat novel approach to check the use of child labour by big companies and business groups in the country.
Instead of cracking the whip on them, it has decided to rope them in to check the menace by drawing up an action plan in collaboration with them.
Having failed in its endeavour to check employment of child labour by the corporate world, the Centre plans to seek the cooperation of business groups, corporates and multi-national companies (MNCs) to check the rampant use of child labour by industrial units and factories.

New Delhi, July 16: Concerned over the growing incidence of child labour in the country, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has directed state governments and various export promotion councils to set up self regulatory mechanism to check child labour from supply to export stage. India has the highest number of child labour, with reports estimating more than 200 million children working in different sectors, including more than 120 million engaged in hazardous work.

A clinic in a village makes a difference even if the village happens to be Sakhipur in Greater Noida,within a stone's throw of New Delhi. The clinic, started by LG Electronics, opens in the morning. Patients come from 25 villages. One of them says: "The sarkari dispensary has been here for two years." The villagers are yet to realise that the clinic is run by a private company. A senior official of the company was shocked to know that the villagers don't know that LG runs the clinic. The villagers obviously cannot read the signboards.