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National Child Labour Project |
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Initiatives towards Elimination of Child Labour :- |
The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation.
Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However,
considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a
socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires
concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.
Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee
to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it. The Committee
examined the problem in detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. It observed
that as long as poverty continued, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child
labour and hence, any attempt to abolish it through legal recourse would not be
a practical proposition. The Committee felt that in the circumstances, the only
alternative left was to ban child labour in hazardous areas and to regulate and
ameliorate the conditions of work in other areas. It recommended that a multiple
policy approach was required in dealing with the problems of working children.
Based on the recommendations of Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition
& Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act prohibits employment of children
in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working
conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively
being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee
constituted under the Act.
In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated
in 1987. The Policy seeks to adopt a gradual & sequential approach with a focus
on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in
the first instance. The Action Plan outlined in the Policy for tackling this problem
is as follows: |
- Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other labour
laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments, and that
the working conditions of children working in non-hazardous areas are regulated
in accordance with the provisions of the Child Labour Act. It also entails further
identification of additional occupations and processes, which are detrimental to
the health and safety of the children.
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Focusing of General Developmental Programmes for Benefiting Child Labour - As poverty is the root cause of child labour, the action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their families also under various poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes of the Government.
- Project Based Plan of Action envisages starting of projects in areas of high concentration
of child labour. Pursuant to this, in 1988, the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)
Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labour endemicity in the country.
The Scheme envisages running of special schools for child labour withdrawn from
work. In the special schools, these children are
provided formal/non-formal education
along with vocational training, a stipend of Rs.100 per month, supplementary nutrition
and regular health check ups so as to prepare them to join regular mainstream schools.
Under the Scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special
schools for child labour. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district.
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Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through
strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative
measures. State Governments, which are the appropriate implementing authorities,
have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of violations.
Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help
solve it, Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of
these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families.
The coverage of the NCLP Scheme has increased from 12 districts in 1988 to 100 districts
in the 9th Plan to 250 districts during the 10th Plan.
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Strategy for the elimination of child labour under the 10th Plan
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An evaluation of the Scheme was carried out by independent agencies in coordination
with V. V. Giri National Labour Institute in 2001. Based on the recommendations
of the evaluation and experience of implementing the scheme since 1988, the strategy
for implementing the scheme during the 10th Plan was devised. It aimed at greater
convergence with the other developmental schemes and bringing qualitative changes
in the Scheme. Some of the salient points of the 10th Plan Strategy are as follows:
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- Focused and reinforced action to eliminate child labour in the hazardous occupations
by the end of the Plan period.
- Expansion of National Child Labour Projects to additional 150 districts.
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Linking the child labour elimination efforts with the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
of Ministry of Human Resource Development to ensure that children in the age group
of 5-8 years get directly admitted to regular schools and that the older working
children are mainstreamed to the formal education system through special schools
functioning under the NCLP Scheme.
- Convergence with other Schemes of the Departments of Education, Rural Development, Health and Women and Child Development for the ultimate attainment of the objective in a time bound manner.
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The Government is committed to eliminate child labour in all its forms and is moving
in this direction in a targeted manner. The multipronged strategy being followed
by the Government to achieve this objective also found its echo during the recent
discussions held in the Parliament on the Private Member’s Bill tabled by Shri Iqbal
Ahmed Saradgi. It was unanimously recognized therein that the problem of child labour,
being inextricably linked with poverty and illiteracy, cannot be solved by legislation
alone, and that a holistic, multipronged and concerted effort to tackle this problem
will bring in the desired results. |
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