The draft National Child Labour Policy, which was circulated for opinions from the stakeholders, will soon be placed before the Council of Advisers for approval, said Labour and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal yesterday. "I believe once approved the policy will contribute to the elimination of child labour both in government and private institutions,' he added. The adviser was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a national seminar titled 'Eradication of hazardous child labour' organised by labour and employment ministry at Biam auditorium in the city. Anwarul Iqbal said child labour has been eradicated from the garment sector in cooperation with BGMEA, ILO and Unicef, and the government is now working to free children from all hazardous jobs. "It is expected that the children will enjoy their childhood and develop their talents through education, but many children end up being employed in hazardous jobs for poverty,' he said. Bangladesh joined the UN efforts to free the children from such menace, he said, adding that Bangladesh has discouraged child labour enacting 14 laws and signing various charters in this regard. "Children are our future. It is the duty of all of us to create opportunities for their mental and physical development,' said the adviser. Vice-president of Bangladesh Employers Federation Alamgir MZ Rahman said besides poverty, some familial problems like divorce, dropouts from schools and lack of interests in education also lead to child labour. "We should work together to root out the reasons to eradicate child labour,' he said, adding that safety-net programmes among the poor will help reduce child labour. Shamsul Alam, project director of Eradication of Child Labour Project (second phase), said removal of child labour in the socio-economic context of the country is a challenge, but all must work together to fight it. Arifa Islam Shimu of Rupsha Mahila Kalyan Sangstha, one of the 76 NGOs working under the project, said it is impossible for the poor to come out of the poverty cycle if child labour cannot be eradicated from the society. She called for continuing the project, increasing the stipends provided to working children for schooling, and strong monitoring of NGO activities for its effective implementation. Workers' representative Nazma Akter said entrepreneurs are more interested in employing children because they can be managed by poor wages and are not able to protest any unjust event. According to labour and employment ministry, there are around 74 lakh child labourers in the country and 14 lakh of them are engaged in hazardous jobs. Eradication of Hazardous Child Labour project (second phase 2005-09), financed by the government, has been targeted to withdraw 30000 child labourers from hazardous jobs through a two-year non-formal education and 6-month-long skill development programmes and providing micro-credit to 20000 parents of child labourers for income-generating activities. The children, who will achieve better results in the trainings, will be provided with tools for self-employment. The project activities are going on in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna metropolitan areas, Sylhet and Barisal city corporations, and Bogra and Narayanganj industrial areas.