The Hindu : 50 more districts under child labour elimination project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 04, 2004

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50 more districts under child labour elimination project

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI Jan. 3. Fifty more districts will be brought under the purview of the National Child Labour Projects (NCLP), being implemented in 13 States for the elimination of child labour. The Labour Ministry runs these projects in 100 child labour endemic districts in the country.

The Planning Commission in the Tenth Plan gave the approval for the inclusion of the 50 districts having high concentration of child labour but the formal inclusion will coincide with the visit of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General, Juan Somavia, to the country on January 13. The Planning Commission has also increased the annual budget for the projects to Rs. 602 crores in the Tenth Plan.

Mr. Somavia is slated to release a backgrounder on these 50 districts and will be the first signatory to the anti-child labour campaign in India.

The NCLPs were launched for the first time in 1988 in areas of high concentration of child labour. These are area-specific and time-bound projects where priority is being given to the withdrawal and rehabilitation of children engaged in hazardous employment. As of now, the projects are being implemented in Andhra Pradesh (22 districts), Bihar (2), Jharkhand (6), Karnakata (5), Madhya Pradesh (3), Chhattisgarh (5), Maharashtra (2), Orissa (18), Punjab (3), Tamil Nadu (9), Rajasthan (6), Uttar Pradesh (11) and West Bengal (8). So far, 2.11 million children are being covered under the projects of whom 1.87 lakh have been brought into the formal education system through special schools.

The ILO funds several international programmes, including some in India, for elimination of child labour. Five districts each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are covered under the project that has seen the enrolment of 20,000 children for elementary education, 40,000 directly rehabilitated, 20,000 adolescents imparted vocational training and 10,000 families provided with additional income generating opportunities.

The International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour in India covers children involved in gem-cutting and polishing in Jaipur, those working in textile mills in Tirupur, carpet making in Mirzapur and glass manufacturing in Ferozepur. Besides, there is a special programme being funded and run by the ILO in Andhra Pradesh for eradication of the child labour.

According to the estimates of the 55th round of the NSSO survey 1999-2000, the number of working children in the country is 10.4 million. The 1981 census recorded the number of child labour as 13.56 million, while the 1991 census recorded the number at 11.28 million.

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