PESHAWAR: The Child Rights Movement Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has complained about the high incidence of child labour in the province, including Peshawar, and demanded the effective enforcement of the prohibition of employment of children law as a corrective measure.

The demand comes following the death of 15-year-old Darwaish Khan, who had burnt 70 per cent of his body in a gas cylinder blast last week while working in a Hayatabad juice shop and succumbed to his injuries.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, the CRM regretted that the government didn`t support the boy for treatment.

It said it was a matter of concern that though there existed laws to checl( child labour, the menace was widespread across the province,including the capitalcity.

The CRM complained about the non-implementation of those laws and said if the legislation wasn`t enforced effectively, the people would never see its positive impacts.

It said the disinterest ofkey stakeholders in the protection of the children`s rights had led to the failure of the successive government s to fulfil its national and international commitments against child labour.

The CRM said there was a need for a multifaceted approach to inform the people at grassroots level to take effective community-driven initiatives to help protect child rights and act as an effective pressure group to ensure the proper functioning of the government machinery against the menace.

It called for the effective implementation of the KP Prohibition of Employment of Children Act 2015 saying under the law, no one under the age of 18 years could be employed in any work except light one for the maximum of two hours a day and that no adolescent could be employed or permitted to work in any hazardous work.

The CRM said the cases like the burning of Darwaish Khan would continue to happen until the government took serious interest in the effective enforcement of the prohibition of employment of children law and protect the children`s rights at all levels.