Kathmandu, May 23: The third steering committee meeting of action programme towards making Pokhara a child labour free city was held recently.

Nepal should not lag behind in initiating process to make Nepal a child labour free country, Rajendra Kumar Khetan, Chairman of the Employer’s Council under the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), told the meeting.

“The issue of child labour can be addressed only in relation to the problem of poverty.”

The meeting held in Pokhara decided to establish mothers’ group for mobilising small shavings to create a fixed fund for education. It also decided to fix fund for education, co-ordinate with the local administration and non-governmental organisations to further the process and send further programmes for approval to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) office.

Khetan also briefed the meeting that similar project was being discussed with ILO-IPEC for carpet sector.

FNCCI and ILO had reached an agreement to make Pokhara a child labour free zone a year ago. The programme is supported by Australian government.

Altogether 432 working children have been removed form the various industries by the project. They have been sent for vocational training, formal and non-formal education. The second phase of the project will be launched from July 2000.