The Hindu : Baseline survey of child labour

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Baseline survey of child labour

By Divya Ramamurthi

CHENNAI, FEB. 23. A baseline survey of child labour in a few endemic blocks of all districts will soon be carried out as part of the INDUS project. This will be in addition to the child labour study carried out under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) last year.

The survey will probably supplement the SSA study findings. According to the SSA survey, there are more than 70,000 child labourers in the State. Boys account for 52 per cent of this workforce.

The Labour department recently issued a tender inviting organisations interested in carrying out the survey, says an official. But as the tender amounts quoted were very high, the department is now looking to governmental agencies.

The INDUS project will be functional in Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Namakkal, Virudhunagar and Kancheepuram districts by the beginning of April.

Transit schools

The districts are preparing to set up transit schools for rehabilitation of the child labourers. More than 80,000 of them will come under this project, jointly funded by the Governments of India and the United States with the International Labour Organisation as the executing agency. About 2,000 children, between 9 and 13 years, will be sent to the transit schools. Another 1,000 adolescent labourers will be given vocational training.

Voluntary organisations hope that the baseline study will help to identify child labourers missed out by the SSA survey. In Cuddalore and the Nilgiris, the statistics are `unbelievably low,' they said. Only 95 child labourers were reported in Cuddalore district and 164 in the Nilgiris.

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