Child Labour
The
problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the
nation. Government has been taking various pro-active measures to
tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of
the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem
inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted
efforts from all sections of the society to resolve the problem.
Way
back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called
Gurupadaswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to
suggest measures to tackle it. The Committee examined the problem in
detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. It observed that as
long as poverty continued, it would be difficult to totally eliminate
child labour and hence, any attempt to abolish it through legal
recourse would not be a practical proposition. The Committee felt that
in the circumstances, the only alternative left was to ban child labour
in hazardous areas and to regulate and ameliorate the conditions of
work in other areas. It recommended that a multiple policy approach was
required in dealing with the problems of working children.
Based on the recommendations of Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child
Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act
prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous
occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in
others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is
progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour
Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act.
In
consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour
was formulated in 1987. The Policy seeks to adopt a gradual &
sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working
in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance. Child
labour census
Bridge courses
A
radically different approach has been developed by the MV Foundation.
It runs residential bridge courses to prepare dropouts, out of school
children and erstwhile working children for entry into the formal
school system in the class appropriate to their age. This has proved to
be a very successful strategy in easing the transition of working
children into the educational system and has been adopted by the Andhra
Pradesh government as well as by NGOs such as Pratham, CINI-Asha , Lok
Jumbish & many others.
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According to UNICEF, children are employed because they are easier
to exploit. Poverty is generally the first answer for why children work
at inappropriate jobs for their ages. But there are other reasons as
well such as population explosion, cheap labour, non-implementation of
available laws, parents unwilling to send their children to schools
(they would rather send them to work, so that the family income goes
up) and abject poverty in rural areas. And what can one do when child
labour is the only means of a family's survival?
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To eradicate child labor, 76 child labor projects have been
sanctioned under the National Child Labor Project Scheme for covering
150,000 children. Around 105,000 children are already enrolled in the
special schools. The Ministry of Labour has asked the Planning
Commission for about Rs.1500 crore to cover all the 600 districts under
the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) as against the 250 districts
at present. Children working in 57 hazardous industries, in dhabas and
homes (in the 9-14 age group) would be covered under this project.
Government schemes like the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan have been
implemented.
|
State
|
Districts
|
Sanctioned Schools
|
Coverage Children
|
Actual Schools
|
Coverage Children
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
20
|
807
|
43550
|
610
|
36249
|
|
Bihar
|
08
|
174
|
12200
|
173
|
10094
|
|
Gujarat
|
02
|
040
|
2000
|
023
|
1254
|
|
Karnataka
|
03
|
100
|
5000
|
024
|
1200
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|
Madhya Pradesh
|
05
|
138
|
9800
|
087
|
6524
|
|
Maharashta
|
02
|
074
|
3700
|
024
|
1200
|
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Orissa
|
16
|
430
|
33000
|
239
|
14972
|
|
Rajasthan
|
02
|
060
|
3000
|
054
|
2700
|
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Tamil Nadu
|
08
|
379
|
19500
|
307
|
14684
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|
Uttar Pradesh
|
04
|
150
|
11500
|
105
|
7488
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West Bengal
|
04
|
219
|
12000
|
164
|
8250
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Total
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76
|
2571
|
155250
|
1810
|
104615
|
Coverage under National Child
Labor Project
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1971-1627492
1981-1951312
1991-1661940
2001-1363339
The Andhra State Based Project For The Elimination Of Child
Labour
The
Andhra Praesh State Based Project (APSBP) for the Elimination of Child
Labour of the International Labour Organization (ILO)) emerged out of
collabortion between the New Delhi office of the Department for
International Development (DFID), of the Government of United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the ILO office, New
Delhi. The first phase of the Project was implemented between November
2000 and March 2004. An overwhelming percentage of out-of-school
children in India are child labourers. Andhra Pradesh is having the
largest number of child labour after Uttar Pradesh as per 2001 Census.
A majority of the working children are girls. Further, nearly 90
percent of child labour is in rural areas. It is therefore essential to
evolve state based initiatives and approaches for the elimination of
child labour based on the socio-economic and cultural context of Andhra
Pradesh and working through the governance of Andhra Pradesh.
National Child Labour project – Districts in Andhra
Pradesh
Ananatapur, Chittor, Cuddapah, East Godavari, Guntur, Hyderabad,
Karimnagar, Kurnool, Medak, Nalgonda, Khammam, Nellore, Nizamabad,
Prakasam, Rangareddy, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Vishakhapatnam,
Warangal, West Godavari, Mehbubnagar, Adilabad and Krishna
CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION & REGULATION) ACT, 1986
:
| ITEM |
2003 |
2004 (1ST Quarter) |
| No of inspections made |
29355 |
5211 |
| No.of Violations detected |
16395 |
2749 |
| No.fo Cases Compounded |
0 |
7 |
| Amount realized |
NIL |
Rs.1,212/- |
| No.of Posecutions filed |
4,870 |
423 |
| Amount collected towards fine |
Rs.2,05,340 |
Rs.37,750 |
| Schools opened |
242 |
173 |
| No.of Children rehabilitated |
15627 |
3640 |
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1971- 713305 1981- 975055
1991- 578889
2001- 418801
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 has been
enacted to prohibit the employment of child labourers in hazardous
occupations and to regulate the employment in non-hazardous
occupations.
National Child Labour project – Districts in
Tamilnadu
Chidambaranar (Tuticorin), Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Vellore,
Pudukkottai, Salem, Tiruchirapallli, Tirunelveli, Krishnagiri, Chennai,
Erode, Dindigul and Theni.
Useful link
http://www.childlabour.tn.gov.in/
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