Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Corporation campaign against child labour

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JAN. 5. The Chennai Corporation today constituted a coordination committee with the Labour Department, the City Police and a few non-government organisations to crackdown on child labour within the city limits in the coming months.

The crackdown will be simultaneously followed up with rehabilitation of the children and their enrolment in either the 93 non-formal schools (in cases where the children have discontinued their studies), or in regular Corporation schools.

The civic agency is also considering setting up a residential school, if a substantial number of children are migrant labourers.

Detailing the campaign to mediapersons at Ripon Buildings, the Corporation Commissioner, M.P. Vijayakumar, said the drive was being planned upon the instructions of the Chief Minister.

The Corporation would identify places where the children are employed. "The Assistant Health Officers of the Corporation will coordinate the teams in each zone. Since they are involved in the licensing of trades as well as issuing of birth certificates, they will have a fair idea of places where child labourers are employed," he said.

Though the drive looked at total elimination of child labour, the Commissioner said the option to prosecute the employers of children would not be used straightaway. "We will warn them and try to sensitise them. Only if they do not comply, we will consider framing charges and prosecution," he added.

The Labour Department will prosecute the employers under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Elimination) Act.

In a random survey conducted by Arivoli Iyakkam and a few non-government organisations recently, more than 5,100 child labourers were identified in the city. Senior Corporation officials felt that the number could be much more.

As a first step, the ten coordination committees - one each for every city zone - will be sensitised to the rules for child labour elimination.

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