Combating Child Labour in the Surgical Industry in Pakistan (Surgical Instrument Manufacturers' Association of Pakistan - SIMAP) (Linked to PAK/98/M01/ITA)

Development objective: To contribute towards the progressive elimination of child labour in Pakistan through reduction of child labour in the surgical instruments industry. Immediate objectives: At its close, the project will have achieved the following objectives: i. Child labour in surgical instruments manufacturing (including underage workers, hazardous situations and exploitative working conditions) reduced by 50% in the targeted areas of Sialkot District through the provision of education and other support services to children. ii. Awareness of child labour issues raised among the stakeholders and partners and action initiated to address health and safety problems in the workplace. Main activities: 1. Non-formal education (NFE) and other support services- Non-formal education and other support services will be provided to three groups of children, namely: (a) the late enrollees among the Phase I target groups; (b) new children in other areas of Sialkot having high concentrations of child workers in surgical instruments production; and (c) children dispersed in small concentration in various parts of the project area. 2. Pre-vocational training Phase I experience has shown that pre-vocational training was much sought after by parents and children alike because it is believed to be useful in preparing children for future entry into the employment market. The project will therefore provide pre-vocational training to the older children (aged 13 years and above) enrolled in NFE and covered under a mobile teaching system. 3. Awareness raising on occupational safety and health (OSH) Building on the results of a study on hazardous occupations to be conducted under the Time-Bound Programme (TBP) for Pakistan, the project will address the health and safety issues in surgical instruments manufacturing. With the active collaboration of the labour groups, and with the use of orientation and other resource materials to be developed by the project, an awareness-raising campaign will be carried out targeting the vendors, parents, children and the community in general, to put across the message on the need to remove/reduce the health and safety hazards faced by the target groups in their respective workplaces. Under this programme, concrete and practical measures will be initiated to improve the working conditions in the industry. 4. Vendors’ registration in SIMAP Experience under Phase I has shown that the vendors’ indifference towards the project stemmed from the lack of interaction and communication between them and SIMAP. As a result, the vendors were unaware of the importance and utility of participation in the project. To address this issue, the registration of the vendors in the Child Labour Cell of SIMAP will be facilitated during this phase with the collaboration of APFOL and APFTU. 5. Child labour monitoring In order to verify the children’s withdrawal or prevention from work, as well as to track their progress in schooling, child labour monitoring will form part of the project. It will consist of two interlinked systems, namely, internal monitoring and external monitoring. The internal monitoring system will be the responsibility of the Surgical Instrument Manufacturers' Association of Pakistan (SIMAP). Data and information on the employers in the industry, such as the manufacturers, subcontractors and vendors, participating in the project will be generated by the system for use in the programme, as appropriate. On the other hand, the external monitoring system will be the responsibility of ILO-IPEC in close collaboration with SIMAP and the implementing partners of the other components of the project. Apart from verifying the internal monitoring information, the main objective of the external monitoring system is to confirm that the target children are indeed being removed and/or prevented from child labour through the provision of non-formal education and other support services.

Project symbol

PAK/02/01/SIM

Admin unit

CO-Islamabad

Start date

01/02/2002

End date

30/09/2008

Total allocation

200175

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

200175

Development Partners

Surgical Instrument Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (SIMAP)

Country/Countries

Pakistan

Outcomes

Increase constituent and development partner capacity to develop or implement policies or measures focused on reducing child labour