Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Syed Khursheed Shah on Tuesday assured National Assembly that government would soon introduce a bill in the Parliament to curb child labour. While discussing motion pertaining to alarming increase in child labour moved by Ms Yasmeen Rehman, Abdul Qadir Patel and Khurram Jehangir Wattoo. The Minister said that according to new law, the people involved in exploiting children for labour should be dealt with iron hand. "The poverty is main reason of child labour. The child labour would disappear if we alleviate poverty, he said. While replying to a question, the Minister said that a total of 3.3 million children are engaged in labour. He said that the government and Parliamentarians should play their role collectively to curb child labor. Yasmeen Rehman pointed out lack of working hours, security measures, insurance policies, schooling, wages, health and education facilities for children. Khursheed Shah said that acknowledging these facilities for children would mean that we acknowledge child labour. "We have to eliminate it. It is a crime." The Minister said that one lakh students are getting education in the various schools of Baitul mal. He also mentioned a programme by his Ministry with investment of Rs 100 million and said, his ministry has sought permission from the government to launch this programme for imparting education to children involved in child labour. In this regard, I am sending summary for the approval, he said. The minister also referred to BISP but said, only Rs 1000 could not be enough to root out poverty though it is a positive step to provide immediate relief to poor people. For poverty alleviation, he also mentioned measures stated in Labour Policy and said, labourers becoming members of the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) can benefit from incentives for wedding, health, education and even monetary assistance on death. Khursheed said, preparation of IRA is responsibility of provinces and we have asked them to do it and if they cannot, they should ask us for the time being and the federal government shall prepare it for them. He informed the House that age limit for child labour is 14 years and urged that for curbing child labour and making the children skilled, we shall have to promote technical education. "If we continue following the traditional education system, we shall not be able to end poverty and unemployment," he said. The minister also mentioned declaring compulsory, the technical education at the 160 schools working under his ministry. "Today we have big demand from abroad about technical experts. Even we can send one million such people abroad. But unfortunately, at present, we have the capacity to only impart technical education to total 370,000 students in our institutions in public and private sector."