MANGALORE: An amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, in October last, made employing children under the age of 14 a punishable offence. Reports of raids on hotels and houses, and children being rescued have come in from different parts of the country since then.

However, the situation in Dakshina Kannada district has been a little different. So far, only one child under the age of 14 has been found working in a hotel. No children have been found employed in houses in the district.

U. Chandravathi, project officer of the District Child Labour Project Society, told The Hindu that all complaints received to date about children being employed in houses had proved false. "On visiting such houses, we found that the children were over the age of 14. We check medical records to ascertain the fact," she said.

The only child who has been rescued is Kishore, a 13-year-old from Konaje. Having dropped out of school, Kishore worked in a hotel to help meet the medical expenses of his ailing father. He was released from employment in November.

He was admitted to eighth standard in Green View High School located in the same area, Ms. Chandravati said. The school had waived his fees, and the Labour Department provided for his uniform and books, she said. A case had been registered against the owner of the hotel, and the recovery of Rs. 20,000 from him was in process, she said. The owner had paid Rs. 4,010 to Kishore as per the requirements of the Minimum Wages Act, she added.

Ms. Chandravati said that the low number of cases might be a result of higher levels of awareness among people in this region. However, she admitted that cases of children employed as domestic workers might not have come to light.

Awareness programme

The society was planning several programmes to create awareness on the issue, and to find out if any children were employed in hotels or houses, she said. The society has distributed 55,000 pamphlets to make people aware of the new law.

It was planning a programme involving school students. Under the programme, pamphlets with a declaration would be distributed to all students between 6 and 18 years in the district.

The declaration, to be signed by the parents of the children, would state that they do not employ children in their houses, and would not do so in the future, Ms. Chandravati said.

The aim of the programme was to create awareness. It might also help us identify homes where children were employed for domestic work, she added.

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