The government yesterday finalised the draft of National Child Labour Elimination Policy-2008, seeking to phase out child labour and rehabilitate over 1 million children engaged in risky jobs.

At a meeting at the secretariat the labour and manpower ministry also resolved to have 30,000 working children enrolled for primary education and introduce stipends for them.

Identifying ship breaking as the most hazardous job, it decided to commission two taskforces–one to be comprised of government officials and the other of non-government ones–to visit Chittagong and report back on child labour situation there.

Labour and Manpower Adviser Anwarul Iqbal who chaired the meeting said a long term initiative to eliminate child labour would follow once the draft policy is approved by the cabinet.

“Hopefully, we will place the draft before the council of advisers by the end of this month,” he told reporters after the meeting that gave a unanimous consent to the draft.

Government officials and representatives of NGOs, factory owners and employees were involved in scripting the draft over four long years.