Elaborate plan on rehabilitation of child labourers chalked out

The ministry of Labour has asked the Planning Commission for about Rs 1,500 crore to cover all the 600 districts under the National Child Labour Project, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 12, 2006, 17:41:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

After putting hospitality industry and domestic helps under child labour regulations from October 10, the government now intends to provide residential schools in each district for child labourers.

In an elaborative plan prepared for the next five years, the ministry of Labour has asked the Planning Commission for about Rs 1,500 crore to cover all the 600 districts under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) as against only 250 districts at present. It will be the country's biggest project to cover 1.26 crore child labourers.

According to ministry officials, children working in 57 hazardous industries and in dhabas and homes, in the age-group of 9 to 14, will be covered under the revised project. "NGOs will be authorised to open residential schools for 40 children in each district for bringing these children into the mainstream," the official said. These schools will be opened after a detailed survey by a district level committee headed by district collector, who will also monitor the scheme.

The children in these schools, to be set up near child labour endemic areas, will also get a stipend of Rs 100 per month from the government. They will also get benefit from other government schemes like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, the official informed.

Like most government schemes, the question remains of its working out or not. Though officials quote Andhra Pradesh's example to show that figures of child labour have gone down in areas fully covered under the NCLP, they, however, are not willing to give a deadline as to when child labour will be brought under control. "There are a number of factors linked with child labour and we are not the nodal ministry to deal with all the issues," he explained.

Now, the government is also focussing on identifying child labour endemic locations in the country which needs special emphasis. Places like Sitamani in Bihar and West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh are the biggest sources of child labourers to metropolitan cities. "The need is to tackle the problem of employment in the specific locations," the official emphasised.

As part of the new strategy, each state government has submitted an action plan to deal with the child labour problem. Most states have promised to work on the rehabilitation and training of child labourers. "We will come up with the National Vocational Training Mission before next year to provide support to state governments in this regard," the ministry official promised.

Email : chetan@hindustantimes.com

Highest child labour figures are in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

State Action Plans

A recent analysis found that extreme poverty in Sitamani district in Bihar is one of the main source of child labourers in Delhi.

Delhi Human Resource Development Report 2006 has found a high number of child labourers in the capital. In November 2005, a survey was done in trans Yamuna area and the government found that rehabilitating children working in the zari industry was just not possible.

Delhi Government has involved NGOs, RWAs and police to identify child labourers. Government will construct more shelters and MCD will accommodate children in non-commissioned schools, Public Works Departments in Bharat Ghars and in Griha Kalyan Kendras. NGOs will provide counselling. Government estimates that Rs two crore will be required for this till the end of the current financial year.

Action plans of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal

Child welfare committees to provide food, clothing, medical help and counselling to the rescued children. Better coordination with District Magistrates in Delhi and Mumbai to bring back children to their homes. While Bihar and West Bengal sends boys, girls come from Jharkhand.

Action Plan of Karnataka

Labour inspectors after taking permission from the Labour Commission can inspect an house for employment of children. The permission is given on specific information from an NGO. Doctor and female officers are required to accompany the inspector during inspection. Doctor notifies the age of the child. Over 750 children have been identified as domestic helps and 250 of them have been rehabilitated, while 10 have been resettled with their families. As many as 16 cases filed. Two residential Bridge Centres have been set up for their education.

Andhra Pradesh

Special focus is in rural areas, home for child labourers in cities. The vulnerable are provided employment and education avenues through self-help groups. The work has resulted in a dip in the number of child labourers in the state.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.