House panel meets stakeholders to suggest reforms in labour law

The report of the committee is expected to be tabled during the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

A parliamentary panel is meeting stakeholders with a plan to recommend amendments to India’s child labour law to pinpoint greater responsibilities of public bodies.

The issue that is being debated is the process of finding out how many children below the age of 14 are employed in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment. (HT File)

The parliamentary standing committee on labour, led by Biju Janata Dal lawmaker Bhartruhari Mahtab, has already met five central ministries and the census commissioner, and has scheduled another four meetings with NGOs and state governments between July 12 and 13.

The issue that is being debated is the process of finding out how many children below the age of 14 are employed in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment.

While the union labour ministry is the nodal ministry to keep a check on child labour, and also keep data on the number of child labourers, its officials have told the panel that it doesn’t have any mechanism to do the same.

The labour ministry depends on the decadal Census to provide it with the number, while the census authorities rely on the states to count the child labour cases from school drop outs.

“It ultimately goes down to the district labour officer to get the data,” said Mahtab. “My impression is that accountability has to be fixed in the law.”

The labour committee has met the union ministries of home, labour, social justice, women and child development and will meet the state governments of Punjab, Odisha, Delhi. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu.

Article 24 of the Indian Constitution clearly states: “No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment.”

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 is the key law prohibiting employment of a child for hazardous work. The labour panel mulls changes in this legislation to fix accountability with various public bodies.

One of the ministries have also expressed concern at the trafficking of children, both girl and boys, flagging the issue as very serious in nature, a functionary of the panel said, seeking anonymity.

The report of the committee is expected to be tabled during the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.