BANGALORE: Both Government and non-governmental organisations must work together to eradicate child labour, particularly in enforcing the ban on employing children below 14 years as domestic workers and in hotels, Labour Minister Iqbal Ansari said here on Friday.

He called for faithful implementation of the recent notification of the Union Government prohibiting such employment.

Mr. Ansari was speaking at a conference of Labour Secretaries of southern States, which discussed the modalities of implementing the notification. The ban has been enforced by including these two sectors in the list of hazardous occupations, where child labour is already prohibited. The ban has been imposed under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 and will be effective from October 10, 2006.

Mr. Ansari said Karnataka was the first State to launch an "action plan" in May 2001 to eliminate child labour by 2007. Nineteen government departments had been co-opted for the implementation of the plan and a high-level committed chaired by the Chief Minister had also been constituted. It was also the first State to ban employment of children as domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, he said.

However, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, had remained largely un-enforced since labour inspectors were not empowered to enter a house where the offence was being committed, without the permission from the Labour Commissioner, Mr. Ansari said.

Since 2004, Karnataka had been implementing the Domestic Child Labour Elimination Project with assistance from UNICEF. The project was being implemented in Bangalore, he said. The Government had amended the Karnataka Civil Service Rules treating employment of child workers by government employees in their houses as misconduct. On evaluation of the project, however, he had observed that the goals enunciated in the action plan had not been achieved within the time-frame due to financial constraints, despite the political will, Mr. Ansari said.

The NGOs have welcomed the latest notification, but there is a feeling that it is an inadequate response. Many gaps still remain in legal provisions against child labour, as the Child Rights and You (CRY) has noted.

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