Supported by two international agencies, a 1.5-million-dollar program was officially launched Wednesday here for fighting against child labor in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The two-year program, aimed at eliminating child labor in five sectors, namely auto workshops, brick kilns, furniture factories, agriculture and street children, is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and to be conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Swiss Ambassador to Pakistan, Markus Peter and Director of ILO in Pakistan, Donglin Li signed an agreement and formally launched the project on Wednesday in Islamabad.

Accordingly, the project aims to reach some 6,000 children in District Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda and Mardan in NWFP over a period of two years, from January 2007 to December 2008.

The project will provide support to the NWFP government in developing effective strategies to combat child labor in the province, and also contribute towards development of skills training program for working children, who are engaged in non hazardous labor and at legal working age, increasing participation and retention of children in schools, particularly girls, according to the officials.

Source: Xinhua