LAHORE: The Punjab Labour and Human Resource Department, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), launched the second phase of the campaign to enrol brick kiln workers children in schools of Lahore district.

At least 28 out-of-school children of `Mashallah Bricks,` 37km on Multan Road, were enrolled in Government Primary School Tipa Samad, in the inaugural ceremony on Monday in which enrollment certificates, schoolbags and books were distributed among the children.

A survey of 151 brick kilns of Lahore, conducted by the labour department, had found 3,190 out-ofschool children of kiln workers.

The provincial government will provide free education, schoolbags and books to these children to be enrolled in schools in two kilometre radius of each brick kiln.

Speaking in the inaugural ceremony, Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar vowed to continue the enrollmentdrive and replicating it in all the 6,090 brick kilns of Punjab until all out-ofschool children were enrolled by Oct 31.

A follow-up mechanism to monitor sustainability of the scheme had been ensured through district vigilance committees, he added.

The minister urged the non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field to play a positive role for the cause of labour community and not for their own publicity or personal interests.

Labour secretary Ishrat Ali criticised the NGOs for, what he alleged, working against the national interest by exaggerating the situation of labourers. He said these bodies would talk of the poor but always hold their meetings in five-star hotels.

Labour leader Khursheed Ahmed demanded all the funds of the Workers Welfare Board stuck up with the federal government since years should be got released.

Additional secretary Syed Mubashir Husain, project director Dr Javaid Gil, director Syed Hasnat Javed, and brick kiln owners and workers attended the ceremony.