The Hindu : National : ‘Check child labour, rehabilitate those rescued’

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‘Check child labour, rehabilitate those rescued’

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked the States to take immediate steps to check child labour and rehabilitate rescued children.

The Commission has also evolved a code of conduct for the employees of all public sector institutions, government undertakings and government-funded institutions and offices, to prohibit engaging children as domestic workers or encouraging child labour in any form.The guidelines issued by the Commission include booking of cases against the employers and issuing strict warning to all the potential employers if found guilty of violating the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act) 1986 that prohibits child labour in 15 occupations; the Juvenile Justice Act (Amendment) 2006 that bars employing children below the age of 18 in any work; the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976 that does not allow holding children as bonded labourers against loans taken by their families; and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 that bars engaging children for work through contractors.

These Acts together cover most children who are in the labour force, including agriculture and allied activities. The panel has further directed the States to take up the responsibility of rehabilitating children through the residential bridge course of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and mainstream them into formal schools. The National Child Labour project must also be utilised for the initial transitional support for counselling to the rescued children, particularly those under trauma.

The successful attainment of a child labour free society would largely depend on the coordinated action between all the departments concerned for which it is absolutely essential that the relevant government departments (labour, education, women and child development, revenue, health and police) work together to implement the existing legislation for eradicating child labour, the Commission has said.

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