PROJECT REPORT ON CHILD LABOUR

CONTENTS

Chapter Topics
1. Magnitude of the Child Labour in the Country
2. Review of Existing Programmes for Rehabilitation of
Child Labour

3. Review of the Present Approach

4. Measures to Tackle the Problem

a. Expansion of NCLP Scheme

b. Revision of NCLP Scheme

c. Awareness Generation

d. Tracking & Monitoring

e. Strengthening of VT component

f. State level monitoring

5. Convergence with other Ministries/ Departments

6. Child Labour (P&R) Act & Proposal for amendments

1
 CHILD LABOUR

REVIEW OF THE MAGNITUDE OF CHILD LABOUR IN THE

COUNTRY

A child is an invaluable asset of any society and has a definite role to play in the

development of the nation. The future of a country depends on how its children

are being nurtured to become the future citizens of the country. Some of the

children, forced by their socio-economic conditions, take up work at a crucial

formative age. A child whose legitimate place is at school is found to be holding

a chisel in his hand to supplement the income of his family. This not only

prevents these children from getting basic education but also is highly

detrimental to their health and leads to the intellectual and physical stunting of

their growth. Deprivation of the life of academics and other activities of joyful

childhood leads to underdevelopment of their innate capacities, which further

perpetuates a scenario of poverty, illiteracy underdevelopment and deprivation.

Though there are clear provisions in our Constitution to safeguard the interest

of children by ensuring that they receive education and are not forced to work

for a living, it is unfortunate that the problem of child labour exists to a large

extent in our country. In fact, child labour is the result of various ills in the

society. Poverty and illiteracy are two such manifestations, which are visible

but there are many other factors inbuilt in our society, like the position of

women in the family, traditional and cultural practices and feudal attitudes in

the country, perpetuating this problem.

In absolute numbers, the problem is large. As per the Census 2001, there are

1.26 crores economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years. The

number was 1.13 crores in the 1991 Census.

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 The State with the highest child labour population in the country is Uttar

Pradesh, followed by Andhra Pradesh. Other States where child labour

population is more than 1 million are Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West

Bengal. While there has been a decline in the incidence of child labour in few

states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Orissa & Tamil

Nadu, there has been an increase in Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh &

West Bengal.

The Registrar General of Census has recently provided occupation-wise data of

children in this age group working in the non-agricultural sector. Though the

classification of occupations in the Census data is not exactly matching with the

occupations listed as hazardous under the Child Labour (Prohibition &

Regulation) Act, a tentative segregation of data into hazardous & non-hazardous

occupations has been done to enable us to have a broad estimation of children

working in different occupations. As per this data, 36.43 lakh children in the

age group of 5-14 years are working in non-agricultural sector in the country,

out of which 12.19 lakh children are working in hazardous occupations. Their

distribution in some major hazardous occupations is given below:

International Scenario
As per the Global Report on Child Labour released by ILO recently, there are

191 million economically active children in the world in the age-group of 5-14

years in the year 2004. This has come down by 9.6% from 211 million in the

year 2000. Out of these, 64% are concentrated in Asia Pacific region, followed

by 26% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3% in Latin American and Caribbean Countries

and 7% in other areas.

Around 70% of the working children are in Agricultural sector, 22% in services

and 9% in industry including mining, construction and manufacturing. There has

been a sharp decline of 33% in the children working in hazardous occupations in

3
the age group of 5-14 years. Latin America and the Caribbean stand out in

terms of a rapid decline in the number of child labour from 17.4 million in 2000

to 5.7 million in 2004 i.e. a decline of 67% in child labour.

In terms of activity rate, i.e. the percentage of children who are economically

active in their age group, there has been a very significant decline in the Latin

America and the Caribbean from 16.1% to 5.1%. The world average activity rate

of children in 5-14 years age group is 15.8%. The activity rate in sub-Saharan

Africa is 26.4% and in Asia-Pacific region is 18.8%. Interestingly, the activity

rate of children in this age group in India as per Census 2001 is 5%, which has

come down from 5.7% in 1991.

4
REVIEW OF EXISTING PROGRAMMES FOR REHABILITATION
OF CHILD LABOUR & THE 10TH PLAN STRATEGY

Law, Policy and Programme

As per Article 24 of the Constitution, no child below the age of 14 years is to

be employed in any factory, mine or any hazardous employment. Further, Article

39 requires the States to direct its policy towards ensuring that the tender age

of children is not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to

enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength. Recently, with the insertion

of Article 21A, the State has been entrusted with the task of providing free

and compulsory education to all the children in the age group of 6-14 years.

Consistent with the Constitutional provisions, Child Labour (Prohibition and

Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986, which seeks to prohibit employment of

children below 14 years in hazardous occupations and processes and regulates

the working conditions in other employments. In the last 5 years, the number of

hazardous processes listed in the schedule of the Act has increased from 18 to

57 and occupations from 7 to 13. Recently, Government has also decided to

include children working as domestic servants and those working in

dhabas/roadside eateries/motels etc. in the category of hazardous occupations.

2.3 Realizing the multifaceted and complex nature of this problem,

Government had embarked on a holistic and a multi-pronged programme to

eliminate child labour from the country in a phased manner beginning with

children working in hazardous occupations and progressively covering the

children working in other occupations also. The National Policy on Child Labour

announced in 1987, emphasizes the need for strict enforcement measures in the

areas of high child labour concentration along with appropriate rehabilitative

measures to curb this menace.

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2.4 Although Government is committed to the task of elimination of child

labour in all its forms, considering the nature and magnitude of the problem,

gradual and sequential approach has been adopted to withdraw and rehabilitate

children beginning with those working in hazardous occupations and processes.

2.5 Government strategy is multipronged, which involves strong enforcement

of the existing Act with simultaneous efforts towards rehabilitation of both

parents and children through linkages with the poverty eradication and income

generation programmes of the Government. This is because working children are

from extremely poor families and are contributing to the meagre income of

their families, a blanket prohibition on all kinds of child labour without providing

an alternate means of financial support is likely to punish parents who are

already living in abject poverty.

2.6 In order to translate the above policy into action, the Government of

India initiated the National Child Labour Project Scheme in 1988 to rehabilitate

the working children starting with 12 child labour endemic districts of the

country. Under the Scheme, working children are identified through child

labour survey, withdrawn from work and put into the special bridge schools, so

as to provide them with enabling environment to join mainstream education

system. In these Special Schools, besides formal education, they are provided

stipend @ Rs.100/- per month, nutrition, vocational training and regular health

check ups. In addition, efforts are also made to target the families of these

children so as to cover them under various developmental and

income/employment generation programmes of the Government. The Scheme

also envisages awareness generation campaigns against the evils of child labour

and enforcement of child labour laws.

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2.7 The NCLP Scheme is implemented through a district level Project

Society, headed by the District Collector. This Project Society, includes

prominent NGOs and Trade Unions of the district, in addition to the State

Government officials from Education, Health, Rural Development, Labour, Social

Welfare and Women & Child Development Departments, etc. The involvement of

different departments in the Project Society is to ensure better convergence

with these Departments for implementation of the Scheme. As far as possible,

running of Special Schools for child labour is entrusted to NGOs. It may,

however, be taken up by the Project Society itself, if competent and

experienced NGOs are not available in the district for this purpose. The

Scheme offers lot of flexibility and decentralization, wherein based on the

broad guidelines laid down by the Government of India, all decisions concerning

running of the schools or selecting the NGOs etc. are taken at the level of

Project Society. The funds under the Scheme are sanctioned by the Ministry

directly to the District Collector, who in turn, disburses them amongst the

NGOs for running these Special Schools for working children. The funds are

also provided under the Scheme for conducting regular child labour surveys,

awareness generation programmes and training of instructors/teachers, etc.

2.8 The coverage of the NCLP programme, which started with 12 districts

has been thereafter progressively increased to cover much larger

number of districts in the country. In fact, major thrust to the programme

came with the landmark judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in December

1996 in the case of M.C. Mehta Vs. State of Tamilnadu. The Hon’ble Supreme

Court gave certain directions regarding the manner in which the children

working in the hazardous occupations were to be withdrawn from work and

rehabilitated, as also the manner in which the working conditions of the children

employed in non-hazardous occupations were to be regulated and improved upon.

The Hon’ble Court specifically ordered withdrawal of children working in

7
hazardous industries and ensuring their education in appropriate institutions. It

also prescribed employment of at least one adult member of the family of the

child so withdrawn from work, a contribution of Rs.20,000/- per child was

ordered to be paid by the offending employer into a corpus of fund set up for

the welfare of child labour & their families. Failing which, the State

Government to contribute to this Welfare Fund Rs.5,000/- per child. The

interest earnings of this corpus were to be used for providing financial

assistance to the families of these children. The Hon’ble Court also ordered

regulation of working hours for the children engaged in non-hazardous

occupations, so that their working hours did not exceed 5-6 hours per day and

that at least two hours of education was ensured. It further directed that the

entire expenditure on education of these children be borne by their employers.

2.9 In pursuance with the directions of the Hon’ble Court, fresh child labour

surveys were conducted in child labour endemic districts of the country and the

States were directed to step up enforcement measures.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court is monitoring the directions issued in this judgment

continuously since then. Based upon the reports received from the State/U.T.

Governments, the Ministry of Labour & Employment has been regularly filing

Affidavits to apprise the Hon’ble Court of the progress in this regard. So far, 8

affidavits have been filed by the Ministry of Labour & Employment before the

Hon’ble Supreme Court, i.e. on 5.12.1997, 21.12.1999, 4.12.2000, 4.7.2001,

4.12.2003, 26.9.2005, 18.4.2006 and 20.07.06.

2.10 The progress of implementation of the NCLP Scheme is monitored in the

Ministry through the prescribed periodical reports & regular visits from the

officials of the Ministry, State Government and audit departments. A Central

Monitoring Committee on Child Labour headed by the Union Secretary (Labour &

Employment) and consisting of State Labour Secretaries and representatives

8
from various Ministries connected with the implementation of the project has

been set up to look into the important issues faced in implementing the Scheme.

The Central Monitoring Committee had recommended setting up of State

Monitoring Committees for monitoring the implementation of the Scheme at the

State level, which are yet to be set up in most of the States. However, as per

the directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court in 1996, in the case of M.C. Mehta Vs.

State of Tamil Nadu, a Child Labour Cell has been formed in most of the States

to implement the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. This Cell has also

been instrumental in monitoring the scheme.

9
Elimination of child labour under the 10th Plan
2.11 In order to provide rehabilitation to larger number of working children,

Government decided to expand the coverage of the Scheme from 100 to 250

districts in the 10th Plan (List of 250 districts is given in Annexure - I).

Further, to make the Scheme more effective, a revised strategy was also

adopted in the 10th Plan, based upon the recommendations of an evaluation of

the programme carried out in 2001 by V. V. Giri National Labour Institute with

the help of some independent agencies. The revised strategy emphasized the

need to continue the programme in a more focused, integrated & convergent

manner. As such, it was decided to enroll working children in the age group of

5-9 years directly under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which had started in 2001-

02, whereas those in the age group of 9-14 years to be covered under the

Special Schools run under NCLP Scheme. Considering the fact that the number

of child labour does not remain static, it was also decided to conduct at least

two surveys during the 10th Plan to correctly assess the extent of child labour in

the districts. For this purpose, a provision of Rs.2.75 lakh per survey was made

for every NCLP district. In addition, a budgetary provision of Rs.1.25 lakh per

year was also earmarked for raising public awareness against the evils of child

labour.

2.12 Further, the nutritional component was doubled in the 10 th Plan from

Rs.2.50 per child/day to Rs.5. Beside, components of health care and vocational

training was also greatly reinforced under the 10 th Plan. Project Societies can

now engage a doctor for conducting health check ups for every 20 Schools at an

honorarium of Rs. 5,000/- per month. Provision of

Rs.5,000/- per month was also made to engage a Master Trainer in the district

to impart specialized skill training to Vocational Instructors & children in

skills/trades, which are financially rewarding. In addition, funds @ Rs. 1500/-

10
per teacher were earmarked for their training and skill upgradation during the

10th Plan, with a view to improve the quality of teaching in NCLP Schools.

The budget allocation under the NCLP Scheme for the 10 th Plan period

was Rs.602 crores. The year wise break up of the allocation and expenditure

under the Scheme during the 10th Plan is as follows:

(In lakhs)

Year Allocation Expenditure

2002-03 8010.00 6513.77
2003-04 7243.00 6783.00
2004-05 9905.00 9315.00
2005-06 11543.75 11503.82

Overview of the implementation of the Scheme in the 10th Plan

2.13 During the 10th Plan, new projects in 150 districts were sanctioned. Out of

this, 50 were sanctioned in February 2004 and 100 in October 2004. So far 86

new projects have been operationalized as per the details given below:

Status of Operationalization of new projects during the 10 th Plan

State Number of new projects Number of new

Sanctioned projects
operationalised
Andhra Pradesh 1 1
Assam 3 1
Bihar 21 3
Chhattisgarh 3 1
Gujarat 9 1
Haryana 3 Nil
Jammu & Kashmir 3 Nil
Jharkhand 4 2
Karnataka 12 5
Madhya Pradesh 14 11
Maharashtra 11 5
Mizoram 1 Nil
Nagaland 1 Nil

11
Rajasthan 17 16
Tamilnadu 5 4
Uttar Pradesh 36 31
Uttranchal 1 Nil
West Bengal 10 5
Total 156* 86

*Note: Six additional districts were taken up during the 10 th Plan in lieu of districts selected
under the INDUS Project

2.14 Efforts are being made to operationalise all the remaining new projects

also within 2006. Constant review and monitoring of the States is being done in

this regard. Some of the States like Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat & Maharashtra

have not been able to operationalise most of their projects. This issue has been

taken up with the State Governments regularly at various levels. It is felt that

the projects in these States require greater level of monitoring at the State

level so that they are operationalised in a time bound manner and implemented

in full scale. Further, considering the significant increase in the number of child

labour in Bihar and the problem of migration of child labour from the State to

metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the new projects

sanctioned in the State need to be operationalised quickly.

2.15 As regards the old 100 projects, the performance of the States is mixed.

Some of the oldest projects are in the States of UP, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh,

Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu. While the performance of Tamilnadu,

Andhra Pradesh & Orissa is creditable as can also be seen in the decline in the

number of child labour in these States, the efforts made in UP were not

commensurate to the extent of the problem. It has shown sharp increase in the

number of child labour between the 1991 and 2001 Census. Rajasthan & West

Bengal have also shown an increase in child labour between 1991 and 2001

Census. A substantial increase in the number of child labour in Rajasthan is a

matter of great concern.

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2.16 The efforts of the State Governments in combating the problem of child

labour can also be gauged from enforcement measures and extent of

mainstreaming under the Scheme. As per the reports received from the State

Governments, the enforcement data of the various States is given in Annexure

-II. It may be seen that the level of enforcement in the States of Tamilnadu,

Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra & West Bengal is encouraging, whereas that in

UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Orissa it is very low.

2.17 So far 3,74,255 children have been mainstreamed under the Scheme. The

State-wise break up is as follows:

State No. of children mainstreamed

Andhra Pradesh 1,73,297
Bihar 10,704
Jharkhand 10,231
Karnataka 10,467
Madhya Pradesh 2,314
Chhattisgarh 4,171
Maharahtra 8,235
Orissa 63,237
Rajasthan 11,371
Tamilnadu 39,523
Uttar Pradesh 23,251
West Bengal 16,086
Punjab 1,368
Total 3,74,255

It may be seen that the States of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa & Tamilnadu

performed well on mainstreaming.

ILO-International Programme for Elimination of Child Labour

(IPEC)
2.18 ILO launched this Programme in 1991 to contribute to the effective

abolition of child labour in the world. India was the first country to sign MOU in

13
1992. Currently there are three Projects in the country under this programme

viz., INDUS Project, Andhra Pradesh Phase-II & Karnataka Project.

INDUS Child Labour Project

2.19 The Government of India, Ministry of Labour and US Department of

Labour signed a Joint Statement on “Enhanced Indo-US cooperation on

Elimination of Child Labour” in August 2000.

As a follow up to Joint Statement, INDUS Project was launched in Feb 2004.

The objective of the Project is to provide a comprehensive child labour

elimination model worthy of replication elsewhere in the country. It is a time

bound project of 3 years duration and is being implemented in 21 districts of 5

states of UP, MP, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Delhi (list of districts given at

Annexure - III). The budget of the Project is 40 million US$ with equal

contribution from Government of India & US Department of Labour.

2.20 The Project envisages direct interventions in the identified 21 districts

for identification and rehabilitation of child labour.

The strategy under the project is to complement and build up on the existing

government initiatives.

It involves working closely with two important national programmes of National

Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme & SSA Campaign of Education for All.

2.21 The INDUS Project is based upon the NCLP Scheme with some additional

interventions, such as vocational training for adolescents, income generation

alternatives to child labour families, training & capacity building programmes for

Government agencies and civil society organizations, strengthening public

education, greater convergence with mainstream education system through Lead

schools & comprehensive child labour monitoring and tracking with the objective

of replicating the successful interventions in the NCLP Scheme.

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ILO-IPEC Andhra Project

2.22 The phase I of this Project has already been concluded and the Phase II

of the Project is currently under implementation. In Phase II, it would focus on

elimination of child labour in three districts of the State viz. Mahabubnagar,

Kurnool & Hyderabad city. It would also devise special strategy for tackling the

problem of child labour in Hyderabad city. The Project aims to develop and

implement strategy for skill training for adolescent children through Vocational

Training. It will also involve employers & workers’ organizations in the child

labour elimination efforts and work towards strengthening civil society efforts

against child labour. Total project cost is Rs. 40 crores, equally shared between

State Government of Andhra Pradesh & Government of UK (DFID) through ILO.

ILO-IPEC Karnataka Project

2.23 This Project is being implemented for the elimination of child labour in

the two districts of the State viz. Chamarajanagar & Bidar. The Project would

implement all the existing components of the NCLP and would also incorporate

some of the additional components being implemented in other ILO Project like

INDUS. The duration of the Project is 3 years with the budget of US$ 3.29

million, which will be funded by the Government of Italy through ILO. Detailed

child labour survey has already been conducted in these districts and the

detailed proposals are under preparation for setting up of Special Schools.

15
III. REVIEW OF PRESENT APPROACH – SOME ISSUES

3.1 With the enactment of Child Labour Act in 1986 and enunciation of Child

Labour Policy in 1987, the Government has been following a sequential approach

towards elimination of child labour in the country. While it is committed for

elimination of child labour in all its forms in the country, the focus is on

elimination of hazardous forms of child labour in areas of high concentration.

With this approach, the NCLP Scheme, which was launched in 1988 in 12

districts of the country, has gradually been expanded to cover 250 districts as

per the endemicity of child labour. The list of hazardous occupations and

processes are also being progressively expanded to cover more and more

sectors. At the time of enactment of Child Labour Act, there were 6

occupations and 13 processes, where employment of children was prohibited.

The list has been expanded to include 13 occupations and 57 processes at

present. In addition, Government has recently also included domestic servants

and children working in dhabas, hotels etc. in the list of hazardous occupations,

which cover a large number of working children in the country.

3.2 As per Census 2001, there are 1.26 crores working children in the country

in the age-group of 5-14 years, which include about 12 lakh children working in

hazardous sectors. The NCLP Scheme in the present form covers children

working in hazardous occupations/processes in the age group of 9-14 years

limited to the districts where it is being implemented. The scheme at its

inception covered children in the age group of 5-14 years. But, with the launch

of SSA in 2001-02, under the 10th Plan, it was decided to confine the focus of

NCLP Scheme to the older children in the age group of 9-14 years, leaving the

younger children to be directly covered under SSA. The Scheme, was

expanded from 100 to 250 districts in the 10 th Plan. However, it still left out

more than half of the country from its ambit.

16
3.3 Considering the demand from various states for expansion of the Scheme

to larger number of districts and the objective of the Government to

progressively cover more and more working children under rehabilitation

measures, there is a need to cover all the children engaged in hazardous sectors

spread over in the country under the NCLP Scheme during the 11 th Plan. This

would also be in line with ILO Convention No. 182, which recommends urgent

measures to be taken for eliminating worst forms of child labour. While ILO

Conventions prescribe these actions for children upto the age of 18 years,

considering the large number of working children below the age of 14 years in

India, and also because of the socio-economic realties the age criteria for child

labour will remain at 14 years. This is also in consonance with the Constitutional

provisions under Article 21 A and Article 24, which target children up to 14

years of age.

3.4 Child Labour being essentially a result of poverty, the Government’s

approach for their rehabilitation, apart from education also included providing

vocational skills to these children, which could help them to earn livelihood later

in their lives. The well-planned pre-vocational skill education can help the

children to link up with vocational training programmes being run in the district

once they have completed their education. This is more for those children who,

once they are over 14 years of age would not necessarily exercise the option to

be mainstreamed to the formal system of education.

3.5 The pre-vocational training being imparted in the NCLP schools at present

is not based on the market demand and the Vocational Instructors are also not

so well trained in newer and innovative avocations which could be very important

factor enabling the retention of these children in the special schools. The pre-

vocational education in the special schools needs to be upgraded to enable the

17
children withdrawn from work to be equipped to retain traditional skills with an

added emphasis on theory. The children who do not have any particular skill

should receive a first level of sustained exposure to possible trades, which they

could link into once they completed education and are of the appropriate age.

Therefore in the NCLP schools the focus must move on from education per se to

a greater synergy between basic education and well rounded planned vocational

training which would adequately equip them with the requisite skills to enter the

job market and thereby generate sustenance income for themselves and for

their families at the earliest possible.

4.6 Experience of implementing the INDUS project has shown that there is

also a great need to provide employable vocational skill training to adolescents

to prepare them to enter the world of work with skills and attitude. It has also

shown that providing vocational skills to this age group would also attract child

labour families to positively change their behaviour in withdrawing their young

children from work and motivate them to complete the primary education and

then acquire technical skills. Providing vocational skills to working adolescents

would also largely improve the access of vulnerable families to vocational

education.

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IV. MEASURES TO DEAL WITH CHILD LABOUR – STRATEGY
FOR THE 11TH PLAN

Expansion of NCLP Scheme

4.1 The NCLP Scheme, which began with a modest number of only 12 districts

has been progressively expanded to various parts of the country with a major

thrust in the 10th Plan, when it was expanded to cover 250 districts, spread over

in 20 States of the country. In addition, Indus Project, which is a joint Indo-US

child labour project for rehabilitation of children, is being implemented in 21

districts of the country. The Project would be ending in August, 2007 and

therefore these districts would also need to be taken over under the NCLP

Scheme thereafter. There have been demands from various States for

expanding the coverage of the NCLP Scheme to more districts. Some States

like Orissa and Bihar have proposed for coverage of the entire State under the

Scheme. To target every working child engaged in hazardous occupation in the

country, which is the immediate objective of the Government, there is

therefore, a need to expand the scheme to all the districts in the country. The

Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) on Child Labour also recommended this in

its last meeting (minutes of the CMC meeting given as Annexure IV). Hence, all

other remaining districts having a reasonable number of working children in the

hazardous category would have to be covered under the NCLP Scheme during

the 11th Plan.

19
Revision of NCLP Scheme

4.2 The NCLP Scheme, within the broad guidelines, provides flexibility in

implementing the Scheme at the field level. Various innovations and initiatives

are therefore, being tried under the Scheme in different states as per their

specific requirements. Some of the successful practices include development of

standard curriculum for the Special Schools at the State level, Mid-day meal

menu based on dietary habits and nutrition value, tracking & monitoring of

children even after mainstreaming, closer interaction with education

department and the mainstream schools for smooth transition of children into

mainstream education system, immunization and regular health check-ups and

provision for vitamin and mineral supplements through coordination with the

Health Department and the provision of vocational skills to the children based

on their aptitude and market needs. There is a need to incorporate some of

these successful individual state interventions into the NCLP Scheme.

4.3 The recommendations of the Working Group regarding revision of the

Scheme for the 11th Plan are as follows: -

(i) Child Labour Survey: - To have a correct estimate of child labour in the

country, there is an immediate need for child labour survey in all the districts

of the country. This is important since the last countrywide enumeration of the

working children was held in 2001 Census and the incidence of child labour may

have undergone change since then with population growth and the large-scale

migration of workforce. The demand for child labour survey in all districts of

the country has also been expressed in the Parliament and also by the State

Governments, NHRC and Civil Society. Since the NCLP Scheme is proposed for

expansion to all districts of the country, there is an immediate requirement for

child labour survey in all these districts. The financial implication for

20
conducting child labour survey twice during the 11 th Plan in 600 districts of the

country @ Rs. 2.75 lakhs per survey per district works out to Rs. 33 crores

(Annexure –VI).

(ii) Standard Curriculum and Learning Materials: - Experience of

implementing the NCLP scheme has shown that those States, which have

developed a standard curriculum for teaching children in the Special Schools,

have had much better results in mainstreaming and retention of children as it

helps in their smooth transition to regular schools. Therefore, there is a need

to develop an improved and standardised curriculum to provide basic education

in the special schools. The specific recommendations in this regard are:

 State Governments to develop a standard curriculum to be adopted in all

the special schools in the State for providing uniformity and linkage with

normal schools.

 The content of curriculum developed should be in consonance with the

curriculum followed by the regular schools for ensuring smooth

mainstreaming.

 State Education Departments and the curriculum and text-book

development agencies be asked to develop new bridging modules or adapt

the ones developed under SSA for this target group.

The proposal does not have any financial implication, as it would be using

the SSA set up. However, if there is any additional requirement, then a

separate allocation will be made to the concerned state governments. For this

purpose a provision of Rs. One crore is proposed.

(iii) Teachers’ Training: - To make learning a joyful and enriching

experience for the children, it is essential that the teachers are well trained

and geared up to take this challenge. These teachers have a major

21
 responsibility of nurturing these children and developing confidence in them

to join the mainstream education. Periodic training and retraining of the

teachers in joyful and multi-grade teaching techniques and sensitizing them

on the specific requirements of working children would largely help the

teachers to contribute their best. Strong linkages for this may be forged

with the DIETs/DRUs in the districts for the training provided under the

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)/Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

A satisfactory method of selection of teachers, with the involvement of the

community should be worked out. For this, the specific recommendations are

as follows: -

 Teachers’ Training, twice during the 11 th Five Year Plan, preferably

through DIETs/DRUs in the districts, in association with SSA.

 Preparation of specific modules for training the teachers of special

schools considering their specific needs.

 The teachers of the special schools can be provided an exposure to the

life skills education programme, so that they can train the children on the

basic life skills, which can have a major impact on the life condition of the

children. NCERT has developed some life skill modules incorporating

elements of basic health, hygiene and key skills of self-esteem etc.

These could be appropriately modified for the requirements of the

children in NCLP schools.

The financial implication for conducting training twice during the 11 th Plan

for every Educational Instructor in NCLP School, which is provided for

currently works out to Rs. 10.8 crores (Annexure-VII). This has been worked

out at the same rate as was earmarked during the 10 th Plan. The additional

features in the 11th Plan would be carried out under SSA set up.

22
(iv) Comprehensive Pre-Vocational Training: - In India, child labour is not

only the means to supplement the family income, but is also perceived as the way

of acquiring skills and learning the job which will be useful for the child to earn

livelihood later in his life. As the families of the child workers are living in

abject poverty, they are often not able to appreciate the need for education

for the overall development of the child, and also due to various other socio-

economic reasons and attitudes, young children are employed in wide range of

jobs including hazardous and dangerous occupations. On the one hand, while the

public elementary education in India does not provide the necessary

opportunities for skill development, access to vocational training otherwise is

also not easy. It is in this context that vocational training has been provided as

an important component in the National Child Labour Project Scheme. Vocational

training to the children would also help in development of their extra curricular

activities.

Although vocational training has been a component in the NCLP Scheme

since beginning, the skills provided have been limited to the stereo-type old

trades like Sewing, Tailoring, Embroidery, Wool Knitting, Bag-making, painting,

Carpentry, Book-binding and toy making. To make vocational training more

meaningful, therefore, would require identifying those skills that have

marketability and linkage with training institutes in the area. Providing

vocational skills to girls is another challenge, as they are mainly tuned to typical

stereotype roles and any attempt to provide them with alternatives requires an

attitudinal change on the part of the parents. Providing vocational training to

the working children also requires developing specific modules for rural areas

and urban areas, as the chances of wage employment in rural areas are

considerably lower than the urban areas. Developing a flexible demand driven

vocational skill training programme, post training support and regular training of

23
the Vocational Instructors in special schools are also required to make pre-

vocational training in NCLP schools more meaningful and effective.

Well-planned pre-vocational/ life skill education provides an attractive pull

factor for children withdrawn from work and their families to see strengthened

value for education. It could help the children to link up with vocational training

programmes being run in the district at the appropriate time and age once they

have completed their education. The specific recommendations in this regard

are as follows: -

 The pre-vocational skills being imparted in NCLP schools be upgraded to

enable the children withdrawn from work to be equipped to retain

traditional skills with an added emphasis on theory as one of the

objectives.

 Labour Market Survey to be conducted in each district to assess the

skills, which have marketability.

 Regular training of the vocational teachers of the special schools through

the ITIs and other vocational training institutes in the district.

 Document the successful pre-vocational training modules in some of the

NCLP districts and offer them to other districts for replication.

The financial implication for training Vocational Instructors twice during

the 11th Plan works out to Rs. 5.4 crores (Annexure-VII).

(v) Strengthen Health Component: - Provision of health care to child

workers in the special schools would help in timely detection of ailments and

their treatment. In this regard, the specific recommendations are as follows: -

 Provision of a health kit with first-aid essentials and few basic medicines

for the children of the special schools.

24
  Flexibility in utilizing honorarium for doctors in the special schools either

on a monthly or per visit basis. In case of Government doctors, the

flexibility should be there to utilize the funds allotted for this purpose

for their transportation to visit special schools.

 Emphasis should be on convergence with the local Government hospitals,

dispensaries or PHCs to provide health care facilities, medical camps and

also preventive health education.

 Health cards for each child must be maintained in each school and the

observations of the doctor recorded thereon.

The financial implication of providing a doctor for every 20 schools

and first-aid kit with basic medicines works out to Rs. 54 crores (Annexure-

VII). The provision of the doctor for every 20 schools is already there in the

10th Plan under the current scheme.

(vi) Uniform & School bag: - Provision of school uniform to children in NCLP

schools is essential for inculcating discipline as well as raising self-esteem

amongst these children, who are coming from the economically deprived sections

of the society. It would also help them to overcome the sense of discrimination

that such children suffer from, while comparing their lot with those studying in

regular schools. This demand has come from various states and NGOs and has

also been recommended in the last meeting of the Central Monitoring

Committee. It is therefore, proposed that, in the 11 th Plan a provision be made

for at least two sets of uniform with a pair of shoes and a school bag every year

for each child covered under the Scheme. Financial implication @ Rs. 500 per

child per year works out to Rs. 225 crores for the 11 th Plan (Annexure VII).

(vii) Provision of Computer & Printer :- With increasing use of computers in

all the fields, and their effectiveness, they are essential for every office.

More so in NCLP Project Office so as to help in effective tracking & monitoring

25
of the children, better supervision over various activities under the Project and

finally record keeping and reporting through the net. A computer with a printer

& a modem therefore, must be provided to every NCLP district for which a

provision of Rs. 50,000/- in the O.E. to be made for each NCLP. Financial

implication of Rs. 3 crores for this proposal is given in Annexure VI.

(viii) Economic Rehabilitation and Sensitization of the Parents: - As poverty

and illiteracy are the prime reasons for child labour, a combined and

coordinated effort of the various departments would greatly help to mitigate

this problem. Providing income generation opportunities to the parents of these

children would enable them to send their children to school rather than work.

This aspect has been clearly recognized even in the National Policy on Child

Labour, which prescribes need to focus on general development programmes for

the benefit of the families of child labour. But, the parents need to be

sensitized about all these programmes to enable them to take any benefit from

them. In this regard, formation of the SHGs of the parents of the working

children is being encouraged.

A concerted effort also needs to be made to continuously convince

parents about the importance of education and the deleterious, long-term

effects of children working. This would also help to bring children from these

families in the fold of education.

(vii) Strong Linkages with Education Department: -

Convergence with Education Department on a sustained basis is required for

the following:

 Correct identification of the child labour under the survey from the

information pertaining to out of school children collected under SSA.

26
  To ensure that the working children identified in the age group of 5-8

years are covered directly under SSA.

 One of the formal schools in the area to be identified as a lead school

for the mainstreaming of the children coming out of the special schools in

that area. Specific instructions to be issued by the Education

Department to the lead schools for smooth mainstreaming.

 To ensure timely supply of textbooks and bridging material for children in

NCLP Schools by the Education Department.

 Assistance in developing curriculum for the NCLP Schools.

 Training of teachers in NCLP Schools as a specific component under the

SSA.

 Monitoring of special schools through the Village/Block Level Education

Committees under SSA to ensure that no child in the area remains out of

school.

 Sensitizing the district education administrative setup, SSA Planning

teams and school head-masters/teachers/VEC members about child

labour issues & the specific needs of these children.

(viii) Enhancement of honorarium: - There is a strong & persistent demand

for revision of honorarium of the NCLP staff and the school functionaries.

Considering the rate of inflation since 2001, when the last revision of

honorarium was carried out under the Scheme, approximately 25% increase is

proposed for the 11th Plan. It is proposed to enhance the honorarium for

different categories of staff as follows:-

A.

Project Society Staff Existing honorarium Proposed honorarium

Project Director Rs. 6000 per month Rs. 7500 per month
Field Officer Rs. 4000 per month Rs. 5000 per month
Clerk-cum-Accountant Rs. 2000 per month Rs. 3000 per month
Steno/DEO Rs. 2000 per month Rs. 3000 per month
Driver Rs. 2000 per month Rs. 3000 per month

27
Helper/Peon Rs. 1500 per month Rs. 2000 per month

B.

NCLP School Staff Existing honorarium Proposed honorarium

Educational Instructors Rs. 1500 per month Rs. 2000 per month
Vocational Instructors Rs. 1500 per month Rs. 2000 per month
Clerk-cum-Accountant Rs. 1400 per month Nil (Not proposed)
Community Volunteers Nil Rs. 2000 per month
Peon/Helper Rs. 800 per month Rs. 1000 per month

The total financial implication of Rs.1074.60 crores after enhancing the

honorarium has been worked out in the Annexure VI & VII for NCLP Project

and school functionaries respectively.

(ix) Enhancement of Rent, etc.: - There has been demand for raising

the rentals for special schools in the big cities, as NGOs have been

facing difficulty in hiring suitable accommodation for this purpose in

the existing budget of Rs.1,000/- per month. Apart from the rent,

water and electricity charges have also gone up during this period,

therefore, revised rentals are proposed as follows:

- A Class Cities Rs. 3,000/-

- B Class Cities Rs. 2,000/-
- C Class cities Rs. 1,000/-

The financial implication of the proposed hike is given in the

Annexure VII.

(x) Residential facility for migrant children: -

Children from the economically backward areas of Bihar, UP, West Bengal

and other States are migrating to the metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai &

Bangalore in search of employment. Various raids conducted by the Labour

Departments in these cities have revealed that these children are working in

28
most pitiable conditions. They are living in their work places, as they have no

regular shelter. They work for long hours and are provided with meagre wages.

These children have no security in terms of their family or community and are,

therefore, in a highly vulnerable position for exploitation.

There is an immediate need to develop special strategy to deal with the

unique circumstances of migrant child workers. Strong rehabilitative measures

in the States, to which these children belong, would help to keep them from

migrating from their homes. Those children, who have migrated to metropolitan

cities without their parents, also need to be appropriately rehabilitated through

a provision of residential schools so that they get food, shelter alongwith

education and skill training in these cities.

Residential facility would also be required for children withdrawn from

work in far-flung areas of the districts, with less concentration of working

children and not having special schools. It is, therefore, proposed to make a

provision of 10 residential schools each in A Class cities and 5 schools each in B

Class cities. The financial implication for the same is given in the Annexure

VIII.

(xi) Award Scheme: - In order to motivate the Project officials, a monetary

incentive scheme is proposed for various levels of functionaries as follows:

Best NCLP District in the country Rs.25,000/-

Best NCLP District in the State for District Rs.15,000/-
Collector
Best Project Director in the State Rs.10,000/-
Two best Field Officers in the State Rs.8,000/- each
Five best teachers in the State Rs.5,000/- each
The financial implication of the proposal is given in Annexure IX.

(xii) Awareness Generation: -

29
 So far, the Communication approach followed under the NCLP Schme has

been to undertake awareness generation exercises at the local/district level. A

provision of Rs. 1,25 lakhs per year was made in the budget for every NCLP for

this purpose. The activities undertaken in this regard consisted of exhibitions,

fairs, rallies, street plays, camps, meetings and workshops etc. on the child

labour in the district. No funds were made available to the State Governments

or even kept at the Centre for awareness generation.

Being localized, these activities had a very limited impact and the need

has been felt to carry out media campaign at the national level, particularly

since the incidence of child labour is quite wide spread in the country. Even the

states have been demanding funds for carrying out state level campaigns on the

issue.

To invoke public interest and large-scale awareness on this issue, there is

a need for an extensive awareness generation campaign launched over a period

of time at the Centre and State on a sustained basis. Keeping this in mind, a

provision of at least Rs.50 crores is to be kept aside in the Ministry’s budget in

the 11th Plan for undertaking national level media campaign on the subject.

Recognizing this need, an initial provision of Rs. 5 crores has been made in the

Ministry’s budget in the current year for this purpose.

Out of Rs.1.25 lakhs presently allocated to each NCLP district, Rs.1 lakh

to be allocated to the concerned State Government for carrying out state level

awareness generation exercise.

The financial implication of Rs. 87.50 crores of the proposal is given in

Annexure X.

(xiii) Enforcement: -

30
 Strict enforcement measures are most essential to deter employers from

employing children. Effective rehabilitation measures therefore, must be

supplemented with strong enforcement measures to prevent further entry of

children into the work force. Successful experiences of some states in this

regard suggest that the districts must be galvanized to take enforcement

measures in a targeted manner and that their performances on this front must

be closely monitored by the State Monitoring Committee on a regular basis

against the targets set for them. Special Task Forces against Child Labour must

be set up in all the districts to carry out raids and inspections to instill an

element of deterrence among the offenders.

31
(xiv) Tracking & Monitoring of Child Labour

Tracking is an important tool to record the progress of the Project

beneficiary right from the time of his/her identification as child labour in the

survey to his/her enrolment in the special schools, through his/her stay therein

and up to mainstreaming. In fact, this monitoring needs to be continued even

beyond mainstreaming to determine if the child is continuing with his/her

studies in the regular schools or has dropped out. Once a child is rehabilitated

under the Project, it is an important follow up step to check if he/she is faring

well in the mainstream school. Such a monitoring would ensure that the child

does not relapse back to exploitative work. A well-designed T&M system

therefore would ensure that the beneficiary has been effectively rehabilitated.

An effective web-based monitoring would also benefit in keeping track of

migrant child labour from one NCLP district to another and would help in

continuation of their schooling and rehabilitation in spite of their movement.

This process of Tracking & Monitoring is, therefore, important in

determining the real success of the Project in terms of children’s actual

mainstreaming and continuation in schools thereafter. It would also provide

credibility and authenticity of the efforts made under the Project.

While Tracking & Monitoring is possible through Index Cards too, the

more efficient and modern way of doing so is through web-based electronic

system, particularly since provision has been made for a computer in every NCLP

district in the 11th Plan. These computers can be made use of for the purpose of

Tracking & Monitoring too with a bit of computer training of the Project Staff.

A provision of Rs. 20,000/- for capacity building of the staff in this regard is

proposed in the first year of the Plan period for every existing NCLP district or

in the first year of their operation in case of new NCLPs. The web-based

Monitoring & Tracking software developed under INDUS Project or under the

32
UNICEF Child Protection Programme or that developed by the Government of

Tamil Nadu could be utilized for this purpose, depending on the ease and

efficacy of any of them. The customization and trial runs of these softwares

are under way.

Further, in order to encourage the Project Staff to learn computer skills,

an incentive of Rs. 200/- per month is proposed for any project staff, which

becomes computer proficient and helps in entering the requisite data on a

regular basis and keeps it up to date. The incentive to be available as long as all

the data entry is kept updated with regard to the NCLP functioning. The

financial implication for this component for the 11 th Plan comes to Rs. 2.88

crores (Annexure- IX ).

(xv) Vocational Training for adolescents

It is important to address the specific needs of the adolescents in order

to equip them with appropriate skills before they enter the job market. This is

being tried under the Indo-US Child Labour Project, where a provision of

systematic vocational training has been made for working adolescents in the age

group of 15-18 years. A comprehensive market survey is conducted to identify

marketable skills in the area. After identifying the marketing skills and suitable

training institutes, these adolescents are provided with intensive vocational

training in various trades for a period of about 6 months to enable them to get

job placements on the basis of the skill learnt or to get self-employed. Specific

recommendations in this regard are: -

 Identifying the marketable and employable skills by conducting labour

market surveys in the districts. This could be done in coordination with

local ITIs and the other vocational institutions in and around the district.

33
 If the local it is have recently conducted such surveys then their existing

database would be used for such purposes.

 Developing vocational training modules and course materials specifically

for the working adolescents.

 Suitable alternatives to the adolescent girls in skills other than the

stereotype vocations for example training as front desk staff for hotels,

training in running beauty parlours etc.

 Developing linkages with the local ITI for providing vocational training to

adolescents.

 Developing linkages with industries & industrial associations for providing

vocational training to adolescents and also for their absorption later on.

The financial implication for providing vocational training for 5,000

adolescents in A Class cities, 2000 for B Class cities and 500 for C Class cities

during the 11th Plan is given in the Annexure XI.

(xvi) State Level monitoring

For an effective implementation of the Scheme, close monitoring is

essential at the State level. The role of the State Government is critical to the

project as it provides guidance, coordination and convergence support to the

project societies. In addition, the State Government is also able to closely

monitor implementation of all the components of the project. The experience of

implementing INDUS Project, where State Project Steering Committee (SPSC)

is closely monitoring the progress of the project districts has further

reinforced the important role of the State Government.

The State Government can provide support in the child labour elimination

programmes in the districts through:-

34
  Collaboration with key Government departments to ensure that child

labour concerns are addressed at the policy level.

 Coordination with other State Government departments, like Elementary

Education, Employment and Training, Rural and Urban Development,

Health and Women and Child Welfare to provide effective convergence at

the field level.

 Development of district-wise State Action Plan for Elimination of child

labour in the entire State, with clear cut time- lines taking into account

the magnitude and problems in each district separately.

 Conducting fresh child labour surveys, wherever required.

 Organizing training and capacity building programmes on child labour.

 Undertaking State level Awareness Generation, Advocacy and Community

mobilization campaigns.

 Stepping up Enforcement drives in the State

The recommendations of the Central Monitoring Committee for two tier

monitoring committees at the State level, which has been successful in some

States, is proposed to be extended to other States also as follows: -

(i) Core Committee on Child Labour (CCCL) to ensure effective

monitoring at the highest level. It would be headed by the Chief

Secretary and would have Secretaries of various State Departments as

members. The State Labour Secretary to be the convenor of this

Committee, which would meet every quarter.

(ii) State Monitoring Committee (SMC) for better implementation

of the scheme. It would be headed by the State Labour Secretary with

State Project Director (Education), Commissioner, Employment and

Vocational Training, Director, Elementary Education, representatives

from Department of Rural Development, Municipal Administration,

35
 Social Welfare, Public Health, District Collectors, representatives of

Employers and Employees organizations, representatives of State

Human Rights Commission and the prominent NGOs, etc as members. It

can meet once in every three months to:

 Oversee implementation of each project and try to address

problems, if any.

 Formulate project related policies and strategies, and

 Facilitate convergence and co-ordination amongst existing

Government scheme towards elimination of child labour.

State Monitoring Cell: -

A specific provision has been made for creating a State Monitoring Cell in

each State under the State Labour Secretary, for effective monitoring of the

child labour elimination programme in the State. It is also proposed to allot

funds to the State Government for creating wide scale awareness on child

labour issues throughout the State. In this regard, the financial implication of

Rs. 8.52 crores has been worked out in the Annexure XII.

36
V. CONVERGENCE WITH OTHER MINISTRIES/DEPARTMENTS

5.1 The National Policy on Child Labour enunciated in 1987 recognized the

need to focus Government action programmes of income and employment

generation to the families of child labour in order to supplement the resources

of these hapless families which depended on their children to supplement family

income. The scheme of NCLP, therefore, always recommended convergence of

efforts with other developmental schemes to help the families of child labour

being targeted under the Project. This was emphasized again in the 10 th Plan

strategy. However, such dovetailing of schemes has been in adequate so far

and hence, the imperative need is to have specific component or built-in explicit

provision for the families of child labour in these schemes of the Government so

as to adequately cover these families and raise their family income in various

forms.

5.2 This requirement has assumed still greater importance in view of the

Government’s decision to prohibit employment of children as domestic servants

or in dhabas, teashops, restaurants, hotels and recreation centers, where the

incidence of child labour is quite widespread and visible. A meeting on the issue

of convergence was called to discuss these issues with the

Ministries/Departments of Rural Development, Elementary Education &

Literacy, Women & Child Development, Housing & Poverty Alleviation and Social

Justice and Empowerment. They have also been addressed to take appropriate

steps in this direction. The Planning Commission may also insist on inclusion of

such provisions in the schemes of these Ministries and Departments in the 11 th

Plan, so as to maximize the impact of Government intervention in a concerted

manner. The efforts towards educational rehabilitation of these working

children need to be supplemented by economic rehabilitation of their families,

37
since a boost in their family income will be critical for the success of

Government interventions in elimination of child labour from the country.

5.3 Some of the prominent schemes of these Ministries/Departments, which

could have an explicit component for child labour and their families are given

below and could be utilized for supporting Government’s intervention for

elimination of child labour. This is however, only an indicative list and could be

extended to other programmes too.

I Schemes of the Department of Elementary Education

 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA)

 Vastishala
 Shiksha Mitra Yojana
 Mid Day Meal Scheme

II Schemes of Ministry of Women & Child Development

 Anganwadi Centre/ Day Care Centre

 Extension Services of Anganwadi Workers
 Balika Samridhi Yojana
 Swavalamban
 Mahila Samakhya (Assistance to Voluntary agencies with Mahila
Samakhya Women)

III Schemes of Ministry of Rural Development

 Swarnjayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

 Samporna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)
 Indira Awas Yojana (IAY)

38
 (VI) CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION & REGULATION) ACT, –
PROPOSALS FOR AMENDMENT

6.1 The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, which was enacted in

1986 prohibits employment of children in hazardous occupations & processes

and regulates their working conditions in other occupations. This was in

accordance with the Constitutional provisions, particularly Article 24, which

prohibits employment of children below 14 years in factories, mines and

hazardous occupations. The twin pronged approach followed in the Act was also

a culmination of basic principles laid down by the Gurupadaswamy Committee,

which was set up in 1979 to examine issues relating to child labour.

6.2 While there was already pressure from international quarters for

providing a minimum age of employment for all categories of jobs in terms of

ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age of Employment, with the recent

insertion of Article 21A in the Constitution which provides for Right to

Education to children up to 14 years of age, there has been a similar demand

from certain sections within the country also for amendment of the Act. As the

Act provides for employment of children in non-hazardous occupations and

processes, it is argued by some that by allowing children to work, their right to

education would be adversely affected and the two are contradictory.

6.3 The Act has been in operation for last 20 years and being a social

legislation needs to be revisited on account of the societal changes having

occurred since then. An attempt in this direction was made and a draft Bill was

prepared by NLI for amending the Act in 1999. The Bill has been referred to

all the States for their comments and views have been received only from some

States. A comparative chart giving various provisions of the draft Bill with the

39
existing provisions under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act is given

in Annexure - XIII.

6.4 One of the idea mooted in the NLI draft is the introduction of light work

for children in the age group of 12-14 years, a practice followed in many

developed countries, including US where children are permitted to take up jobs

in occupations like paper vending, shop assistants in departmental stores etc.

These occupations are considered light work & children above 12 years of age

are allowed to work in these provided they are beyond school hours & do not

affect their schooling, for which they are required to get a NOC from their

schools.

6.5 Another proposal made in NLI draft relates to redefining the term

‘occupier’ under Section 2 of the Act. The idea is to include even those

situations where work is undertaken by families, etc. on behalf of or under

orders of the employer. In many such cases, raw materials and other

specifications etc are provided by a third party, i.e. the main contractor or

supplier. This practice is quite widespread in Beedi making and leads to carrying

out such hazardous activities in the household, where children are also engaged

in great number, especially since the payment is made on piece-meal basis. By

amending the definition of occupier, the Act would be able to cover even such

contractors or suppliers who are getting their work done through families,

where children are also engaged in carrying out these jobs.

6.6 There is a need to impose stiffer penalties for violation of the Act. The

Act may be amended so as to make imprisonment compulsory by replacing ‘or’ by

‘and’ in Section 14 of the Act. This amendment would add more teeth to the Act

and make it more deterrent. A similar proposal for imposing stiffer penalties

under the Act is under consideration before the Ministry in a Bill proposed for

40
revising penalties in case of non-maintenance of records & registers under

various labour laws.

6.7 In addition, suggestions have also been received from the Task Force set

up by Department of Women & Child Development, which recommended following

amendments in the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act:

(i) Fixing 11 years as minimum age for employment in non-hazardous

occupations (Section 3).

(ii) To provide 50% of the members on the Child Labour Technical

Advisory Committee as women (Section-5).

(iii) Include education of child labour as on objective of making rules &

also among the matters to be provided for by the rules (Section

13).

6.8 All these recommendations were considered by the Central Monitoring

Committee in its meeting held on 5-6 th June 2006. The Committee made

following recommendations in this regard:

(i) Fixing 14 years as minimum age of employment in non-

hazardous occupations. Raising minimum age of employment in

hazardous occupations from current level of 14 years to 18 years.

(ii) 33% of the seats in the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)

be reserved for women.

(iii) Inclusion of education as one of the objectives for framing

rules under the Act for regulation of working conditions.

6.9 Ministry has agreed to the recommendation for reservation of 33% of

the seats for women in the TAC and the inclusion of education as one of the

objectives for framing rules under the Act for regulation of working conditions.

As regards the complete ban on all forms of child labour in the country, it may

be mentioned that in many of the communities engaged in traditional

41
professions, children are imparted family skills and trades to help them earn

livelihood later on in life. These children are not necessarily out of school

children and may be learning these traditional skills simultaneously while

attending schools. It is, however, essential that the process of imbibing

traditional skills does not affect their regular education. Provision of education

and child labour of this form are not mutually exclusive and considering the

socio-economic conditions in the country, children would continue to assist

parents at home. But, what is not negotiable is the children’s right to education

and hence, Government’s endeavour is to ensure that all children up to 14 years

of age are provided education.

6.10 As regards the argument from some quarters, that with the insertion of

Article 21-A in the Constitution, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act

has become unconstitutional, it may be mentioned that Article 21-A only states

that it is the responsibility of the Government to provide free & compulsory

education to all the children between the ages of 5 to 14 years. It does not

presuppose prohibition of child labour or else Article 24, which specifically

prohibits child labour in factories, mines & hazardous occupations, would have

been suitably amended to extend this ban to all forms of child labour. Since, the

rightful place of the child is in school, the Government’s endeavour is to ensure

that all the children in the age group of 5-14 years are provided education.

Keeping this in view, Government is implementing the National Child Labour

Project for providing education to working children in specified hazardous

occupations and mainstreaming them into formal education system.

6.11 Education for all the children is the utmost concern of the Government,

which is being pursued specifically under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan since 2001-

2002. For the Child labour, which constitutes one of the most vulnerable

segments of the child population, Ministry of Labour & Employment has been

42
implementing the Scheme of National Child Labour Project. Under this Scheme,

working children in specified hazardous occupations in the age group of 9-14

years are withdrawn from work and put into Special Schools to prepare them to

join regular education system. The National Child Labour Project is therefore,

supplementing the Government’s efforts for providing education up to 14 years

under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

6.12 The elimination of child labour in totality in the country is an ideal

situation and Government is making all efforts to move in this direction.

However, in view of the existing socio-economic conditions in the country,

imposing a blanket ban on all forms of child labour or raising the minimum age of

working from 14 to 18 years would not be practical and would be very difficult

to implement, particularly keeping in view the diverse levels of economic

development in different areas of the country. Therefore, looking into the

diversity in the country, the provisions of the Act have to be such which are

uniformly enforceable in all parts of the country. As such, flexibility exists

under NCLP as well as SSA for implementing these Schemes as per the local

conditions. Through these Schemes, Government is trying to bring all children

under the education net, where NCLP Scheme is particularly targeting the

disadvantaged group of working children. As existence of child labour is directly

linked to poverty, Government is following a holistic and sequential approach and

striving progressively to move in the direction of complete elimination of child

labour. As elaborated above our endeavour during the 11 th Plan period would be

to cover all children working in hazardous occupations in all districts of the

country where it is prevalent.

**************

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Conclusions:

On the basis of extensive discussions held in the meeting over two days,

following, in brief, were the major decisions arrived at by the Central

Monitoring Committee:

2. To expand the NCLP Scheme to all the districts of the country in

the 11th Plan.

3. To revise the NCLP Scheme in the 11th Plan by adding new

components; e.g. (a) Provision of uniform and sports kits to children

enrolled in special schools (b) Providing immunization &

mineral/vitamins supplements to them regularly with the help of

Health Department at State level (c) Development of Curriculum for

special schools at State level in collaboration with Education

Department (d) Establishing a system of ‘lead schools’ in every district

for smooth transition into mainstream education (e) Monitoring &

Tracking of child labour even after mainstreaming, and (f) Vocational

training based upon market survey and in association with ITIs and

vocational training to adolescents also.

4. Need for greater monitoring and convergence at the State level with

formation of a Core Committee on Child Labour (CCCL) headed by

the Chief Secretary & a State Monitoring Committee (SMC) headed

by the State Labour Secretary in every State for more effective

implementation of the Scheme.

5. Every State to develop State Action Plan with specific targets for

every district to eliminate child labour in a time-bound manner.

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6. Need to evolve a specific strategy for migrant child labour in

metropolitan cities with greater inter-state coordination.

7. Need to amend the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act,

1986;

(i) Fixing 14 years as minimum age of employment in non-

hazardous occupations.

(ii) Raising minimum age of employment in hazardous occupation

from current level of 14 years to 18 years.

(iii) Inclusion of education as one of the objectives for framing

rules under the Act for regulation of working conditions.

8. Assessment of child labour in various occupations in the district

through intensive fresh child labour surveys in all the districts. This

would enable the State and district level authorities to develop the

action plan to tackle this problem in the entire State.

9. Strict enforcement measures were most essential to deter employers

from employing children. Effective rehabilitation measures had to be

supplemented with strong enforcement measures to prevent further

entry of children into the work force.

10. To invoke public interest and awareness on this issue, there was a

need for an extensive awareness generation campaigns launched over

a period of time at the centre, State and district levels.

11. Since the problem of child labour essentially emanated from poverty,

there was a need to develop strong convergence mechanism and

linkages between NCLP and other Schemes of the Government under

poverty alleviation, employment generation, rural development, women

45
and child development, health care, etc. to target child labour & their

families for improving their economic conditions.

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 Annexure-B

STATE-WISE REVIEW

Andhra Pradesh

State Project Director (Education), Shri K. Chandramouli, Department of

Education gave an account of the project activities in the State. He mentioned

that the NCLP Scheme was being implemented in the State in convergence with

the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and there was also a provision of residential schools

to the children in some districts. He outlined the efforts made by the State to

bring down the number of out of school children in the State.

It was pointed out to him that NCLP schools in the State were not being

run exclusively for the working children as all out of school children were being

enrolled in these schools. Therefore, the NCLP schools did not have an identity

distinct from regular schools being run under SSA. Therefore, the necessary

focus on the working children was lacking in the State. It was also pointed out

that there was large scale under utilisation of funds in various districts like

Vishakapatnam, Vijayanagaram, Sirikakulam, Hyderabad, etc. He was requested

to review the implementation of the Scheme in each district and ensure that

funds were properly utilized and for those components for which they were

given and the working children were provided effective rehabilitation under the

NCLP Scheme.

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