India To Implement Plan To Educate, Rehabilitate Child Laborers In 271 Districts

November 27, 2009 9:09 a.m. EST

New Delhi (AHN) - The Indian government is looking to implement the National Child Labor Project (NCLP) Scheme in 271 districts in India to put a stop to child labor.

The NCLP Scheme was introduced in 1988 and has been implemented in gradual phases in different districts in the country over the years.

The scheme aims to enroll children withdrawn from work into special schools where they are provided with bridging education, vocational training, stipend, nutrition and health care. It has already been able to introduce more than 500,000 rehabilitated child workers into the regular education system.

Harish Rawat, labor and employment minister said on Wednesday, "The Indian government is committed to the elimination of all forms of child labor. Considering the magnitude and the nature of the problem, Government has adopted a gradual & sequential approach to withdraw and rehabilitate working children, beginning with those working in hazardous occupations/processes and then covering children working in other occupations."

At 17 million, India is home to the largest population of child laborers. However, the official figures fail to take into account children who work while going to school as well as children aged between 15 and 17 years, experts argue.

In October 2006, the Ministry of Labor issued a notification banning children from working in residences and the hospitality sector. However, the ban remained largely on paper.

Yogita Verma, Director (Resource Mobilization), CRY - Child Rights and You told AHN,  "Successive governments, for over 60 years, however, have clearly not had the political will. The low number of prosecutions, the even lower number of convictions, and the paltry sentences meted out when convictions have occurred, reveal the insincerity of the Indian State - executive, judiciary and legislature alike - towards our children. And we, as citizens, have permitted them to get away with their inaction. So even today, for the vast majority of children, spending their childhoods in servitude seems to be the natural order of things."

CRY has been working with children for over 3 decades and according to Verma, their experience has shown that, "child labour can only be eradicated if its root causes - situations that force children into work - are also addressed; like the lack of a coherent education policy, insufficient schools, lack of livelihood for adults, poverty, marginalization, migration among others. Piecemeal, ad hoc efforts with knee jerk reactions will not do."