HYDERABAD: The Children's Day this year saw CLEAR (Child Labour Elimination Awareness Run), an event that involved hundreds of participants running their way from People's Plaza to Ravindra Bharathi, clearly saying `no' to child labour.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on Tuesday urged people to come together and eliminate child labour, saying children deserved to be studying in school.

He spent over 15 minutes at the People's Plaza and flagged off CLEAR. Labour Minister G. Vinod, led the run for some distance from People's Plaza, holding aloft a flag. Earlier, he sat through cultural programmes presented by students from different schools in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. The students included street children who had been rehabilitated and the convent-bred.

The Labour Minister later participated in the `Apex 3rd Annual Mile for a Smile' organised by the Apex Foundation, a privately-funded, non-profit organisation of Apex CoVantage.

He gave away donation cheques to participating organisations in the presence of Joseph Topper, the company's Senior Vice-President, Global Operations.

SCRMU programme

The South Central Railway Mazdoor Union, in connection with Children's Day, has launched a sensitisation programme for railwaymen and railway commuters on the ILO's Programme for Elimination of Child Labour.

Hindustan Mazdoor Sabha president Nayani Narasimha Reddy, SCRMU president V.P.R. Pillai and others spoke.

Canara Bank scheme

The Canara Bank, on the occasion of Children's Day, launched a new scheme for children, titled CanChamp, under which a Savings Bank account can be opened in the name of a child with special features and other offers.

The scheme enables children from the age group of 0-12 to open accounts with a minimum balance of Rs.100, the operation of which can be done by the parent or guardian.

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