Karnataka - Bellary   

Special courts to try child labour cases proposed

BELLARY: The Advisory committee on Eradication of Child Labour, attached to the Union Ministry of Labour, has proposed to bring in several amendments to the Child Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act 1986 to make it more broad-based and its effective implementation in achieving the purpose.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Nasir Hussain, vice-chairman of the committee, said that the Act was being amended after a gap of 22 years. During the discussions the committee had with various agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs), several suggestions were put forth to ensure effective implementation of the Act on eradication of child labour.

“The proposed amendments are being drafted, keeping in view the ground realities and the study reports, and would be tabled before the next session of Parliament for approval. The idea is to ensure that child labour is eradicated to the maximum possible extent,” he said.

Establishment of special courts to try the cases pertaining to child labour, giving more teeth to local law enforcing machinery to rescue children employed as domestic help, enhancing the age from the present 14 to 18 years and consider them as child labour were major among other amendments proposed, he said.

In addition, the committee had proposed to relax the rules of certain hazardous industries such as zari work and carpet making, which involved skill, done in the house to enable the children to get the required basic training after school hours, and continue the traditional vocation, on the condition that the child would be attending school regularly, he said.

Mr. Hussain said that the committee had proposed to frame policies with regard to convergence of the existing schemes of various ministries under one head, pooling of international funds and utilise them properly in different States wherever child labour was rampant.

The Union Government had taken the issue of child labour very seriously following survey reports submitted by various NGOs and that it was being discussed at international level and has been doing its best to eradicate it by starting National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Schools, tent schools to provide them education and bring them to the main stream, he said.

He said that the percentage of child labour was declining owing to the awareness created among the public.

“Much more needs to be done to achieve the goal. Priority is being accorded to provide education to the child on the one hand and provide the benefits of the welfare schemes announced by the government, including National Rural Employment Gurarantee Programme, to supplement the family income on the other,” he said.

Earlier, Mr. Hussain, accompanied by Mr. Hiregoudar, Labour Officer, Lucky Prithviraj, Director, District Child Labour Project, visited a couple of NCLP schools.

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