12/06/2010
Education can help end child labour: experts
New Delhi: The Right to Education Act, which calls for free and compulsory education for everyone under the age of 14, will help to eliminate child labour in India, experts said Saturday.
Education can help end child labour: experts
Speaking on the World Day Against Child Labour, speaker after speaker underlined the importance of education.
"Every child out of school will sooner, rather than later, be a child labourer. Realisation of Right to Education is crucial in reaching the aim," said Shantha Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
India is home to nearly nine million child labourers, most of whom come from impoverished families and are often forced into hazardous industries. Many slave away without being paid.
Education can help end child labour: experts
Speaking at an event organised by the central government, the UN and a few industrial organisations, Sinha urged the private sector to join the initiative.
"The government needs equal social partners to see that the world is free of child labour. The role of private sector is inevitable," she said.
A joint statement from the NCPCR, International Labour Organisation, Unicef and Unesco said that the Right to Education will substantiate efforts to eliminate child labour.
Education can help end child labour: experts
National Advisory Committee member and social activist Harsh Mander stressed the need to set up residential schools to woo child labourers.
"We we need to provide them residential facilities along with education," Mander said. "After freeing a child labourer, the case is not followed and most go back to work. We must focus on taking them back to school."
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has demanded an amendment to the child labour act to bring the unorganised sector within the ambit of the law.
Education can help end child labour: experts
"There are a number of loopholes in the child labour act which makes it ineffective. It does not include agriculture and allied activities which account for highest incidences of child labour," NCPCR chairperson Shantha Sinha told IANS.
"Millions of children are engaged in works which are not listed as processes of occupation... all these children do not come in purview of the act. This is why we are demanding an amendment in the act," she said.
The National Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 in factories, mines and hazardous employments.
Education can help end child labour: experts
"Children working as part of family are also not identified as labour. Employers exploit these provisions," Sinha said.
The commission has also demanded raising the age for classifying child labour from current 14 years to 18.
The chairperson said that a request has been sent to the labour and employment ministry for amending the act.
"We are awaiting a response from the ministry of labour and employment," Sinha said.
According to the NCPCR, there are nearly nine million child labourers in the country, a majority of who are in rural areas. Two-thirds of them are engaged in agriculture, accounting for 73 percent of casual child labourers and nine percent of regular workers.
Source: IANS
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