ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- The International Labor Organization has begun a four-year effort to help the Pakistan government eliminate child labor in that country.
"We are primarily providing technical support in this campaign against child labor, because, like poverty, it has to be phased out step by step," Johannes Lokollo, ILO representative in Pakistan, told the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks in Islamabad.
Pakistan in 2001 ratified a ILO convention, which focuses on the worst forms of child labor and sought ILO assistance to develop a "time-bound" program to eliminate the problem.
The agreement with Pakistan has selected deep-sea fishing, the glass-bangle industry, tanneries, coal mining, the surgical instrument manufacturing industry and rag picking as the sectors in which child laborers were exposed to the most hazardous conditions.
Lokollo said: "We hope to be able to withdraw a large amount of children from these sectors and enroll them in educational institutions."
Some 3.3 million children are reportedly working in Pakistan
