Children shouldn’t work in fields but on dreams - Bala

The Ministry of Employment was able to withdraw 231 children from the child labor environment from June 2011 to date.

This was highlighted by the Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Parveen Bala during the World Day Against Child Labour Celebration.

With the theme “Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams” Bala mentioned that this theme reflects the commitment of the Ministry and the government, for prompt action to stop all forms of child labour.

Bala says since 2011, the Ministry as part of its training programme has trained over 300 school teachers and over 200 community leaders and farmers in awareness and mitigation on child labour.

He says the Ministry has previously worked with the strategic partners in signing an inter-agency guideline in December 2015 and is also working towards a National Policy on Child Labour to ensure a collective approach towards eradicating child labour from our society.

Bala says Fiji’s commitment towards the Elimination of Child Labour is also voiced in the law which defines the issues of the worst forms of Child Labour, minimum age of employment, the rights of a child, conditions on restricting the employment of children, and the conditions on hours and type of work that a child can perform if he or she is above the age of 15 years.

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