National Child Labour Project Scheme, its objective and strategy:
Policy:
The National Child Labour Policy was approved by the Cabinet on 14th August 1987 during the Seventh Five Year Plan Period. The policy was formulated with the basic objective of suitably rehabilitating the children withdrawn from employment thereby reducing the incidence of child labour in areas of known concentration of child labour. The policy consists of three main ingredients:-
Legal Action Plan -
With emphasis laid on strict and effective enforcement of legal provisions relating to child labour under various labour laws;
Focusing of general development programmes -
Utilization of various ongoing development programmes of other Ministries/Departments for the benefit of child labour wherever possible; Project-based plan of action-
Launching of projects for the welfare of working' children in areas of high concentration of child labour. The broad approach under the policy will continue to be adopted during the 10th Plan period also.
Objective:
The number of Child Labours as per the 1991 census was over 1.1 crores. Keeping in mind constraints of resources and the prevailing level of social consciousness and 'awareness, the Government has fixed the time till the end of the loth Plan to eliminate child'-labour in the hazardous sector. Elimination of all forms of child labour itself is a progressive process beginning with elimination efforts in the hazardous areas.
Target Group:
Under the scheme, the target group is all the children below 14 years of age and working in:
Occupations and processes listed in the Schedule to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986; and/or
Occupations & processes, which adversely affect their health and psyche In the latter category, the hazardousness of the employment towards the children should be reasonably established.
Strategy:
As per the 1991 census, the total number of working children in the country was 11.28 million. However, the NSSO survey 1999-2000 has reflected the magnitude of child labour as 10.40 million. It is -proposed to adopt a sequential approach with focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations in the first instance. Under the scheme, after a survey of child labour engaged in. hazardous occupations/ processes, the children are to be withdrawn from the above mentioned categories of occupations and processes, and then admitted to special schools (Rehabilitation-cum- Welfare Centers) in order to enable them to be mainstreamed into the formal schooling system. Vocational training is also proposed to be provided under the' 10th Plan strategy.
Programme Component:
Under the National Child Labour Projects, it is proposed to focus on different developmental and welfare programmes for the benefit of child labour in the project area. Effective convergence and an integrated approach of the relevant social sector schemes need to be carried out to achieve the project goals. The activities to be taken up under the project in the 10th Plan are:
- Stepping up of enforcement of child labour laws
- Formal Non- formal education
- Provision of Vocational Training
- Income and employment generation activities
- Direct rehabilitation of child labour
- Raising of public awareness
- Survey and evaluation.
Some of the important components are elaborated in the subsequent paragraphs.
(i) Special Schools (Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Centres):
Rehabilitation of working children is an important activity, which is the direct responsibility of the project authorities. Under this activity, Child labour special schools (Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Centres) are to be set up by encouraging voluntary efforts for imparting formal/non-formal education and pre-vocational/craft training. The children in the centres will also be provided with supplementary nutrition, stipend, health care services, etc. These Centres essentially will act as bridge institutions to enable children withdrawn from work to join mainstream education.
(ii) Awareness Generation:
Apart from direct rehabilitation of working children, it is also necessary to prevent fresh entry of children to work by arousing and awakening the critical consciousness of the public against the evils of child labour. In order to achieve this' objective, continuous and sustained awareness generation programmes will have to be carried out on regular basis. For this purpose an enhanced budgetary provision amounting upto Rs. 1.25 lakhs per year has been earmarked in respect of each NCLP.
(iii) Convergence of Services:
In the Tenth Plan, child labour elimination efforts would be linked with the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). The intention is to ensure that all children in the age group of 5-8 years get directly linked to the formal school education system through a close, coordinated attempt with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Poverty, apart from illiteracy, being the main cause of child labour, it is necessary to raise the economic standard of the parents of working children by exploiting the synergy of benefits of various schemes under implementation at the district level. A substantial number of parents of working children could be covered under the Department of Rural Development's self-employment and poverty alleviation schemes. In the context of the above objectives concerted, focused and rigorous efforts at converging important activities at the Central Government, State Government and the District level would be needed to be put in place. Similarly, convergence with ongoing schemes of other Departments such as Health, Women and Child Development, Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, Labour etc could be critical for the ultimate attainment of the objective of elimination of child labour in a timebound manner.
(iv) Enforcement Legal Action
It is felt that a more focused and effective enforcement of the provisions of the Child Labour (Prevention & Regulation) Act, 1986 needs to be put in place in the districts during the 10th Plan period. Concerted and serious efforts should be made to enforce the law at the state and district level. In order to achieve this objective, the enforcement machinery will have to be geared up and activated suitably.
source:http://www.labour.nic.in
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