ONGOLE: International Labour Organisation (ILO) will dedicate the `Markapur model', which it has developed and tested successfully to eliminate child labour in slate industry, to the world on June 12 so that other mines in and out of India can replicate it.

Speaking to newspersons here on Saturday, the ILO representative at New Delhi, Neethu Lamba, said that the Integrated area specific project being implemented in Markapur slate industry for the last five years helped reduce child labour from 4,584 to 242.

The pilot project had demonstrated that it was possible to eliminate child labour in mining and quarrying through various interventions in an integrated approach.

"Elimination of child labour from mines has become an achievable goal now," she said.

To mark World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, the ILO convened a meeting at Markapur on Sunday to help various participants in the programme to share their experiences and showcase their success factors.

Theme for the year

Ms. Lamba said that the ILO had estimated that there were 250 million child labourers all over the world and of them nearly one million work in mining and quarrying under hazardous circumstances.

It had announced that elimination of child labour in mines as its theme for the current year.

The ILO, with the help of the State Government and voluntary organisations, implemented the pilot project in three ways -- prevention of new recruits, withdraw child labour and impart education to them by setting up special schools, empower women through micro finance and avoid the need to send children to work and encourage mine owners to mechanise operations to replace child labour.

The project became successful, thanks to cooperation of mine owners, industrialists, trade unions, civil society and voluntary organisations.

The district Collector, B. Udaya Lakshmi, said child labour problem was noticed in 65 villages in a radius of 25-30 km from Markapur where slate mines are located.

Parents sent their children to work due to poverty. The ILO project was implemented in 43 villages and it helped wean away 4,300 children.

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