New Delhi, Oct 09: With the coming into force of a
ban from Tuesday on child labour, social activists fear that
the law, though well-meaning, could result in under-age
workers getting pushed into hidden and more dangerous jobs.
While the government maintained that there were as many
as one lakh child workers in the capital, Bachpan Bachao
Andolan, an NGO working for the rights of children, claimed
there were over four lakh under-age workers.
With most of the child workers in the city coming from
Bihar and Jharkhand, the Delhi government has prepared an
action plan with the respective states for their
rehabilitation.
"An action plan has been drawn up, which involves the
various concerned agencies such as labour and social welfare
departments, police and railways as well as NGOs, RWAs and
industrial and market associations," a top Delhi Government
official told mediapersons.
He said the RWAs and market associations will have an
important role to play as the fresh notification on banning
child labour also prohibits employment of children as domestic
workers or servants in 'dhabas' and restaurants.
The official said the rescued children will be escorted
by police back to their home states, where the local authority
and NGOs will be in charge of their rehabilitation.
Under a central scheme for rehabilitating child workers,
all of them will get a monthly stipend of Rs 100, he said.
Looking at the flip side of the law, social activists
fear the employers may dump the children into back-end jobs,
such as working in godowns.
"In an effort to avert legal action, an employer may hide
the child and engage him or her in more hazardous jobs," said
Surina Rajan of ILO.
"The children may not just be forced to do closed door
jobs, they may also be subjected to abuse or even trafficked,"
said Rajan, who heads the ‘Indus’ project for eradication of
child labour.
Shaiju Varghese, coordinator of the Childline-1098, said
it would be difficult for the implementing agencies to locate
domestic workers and, hence, the role of the civil society
becomes important. "The police or any other agency would fail
in their purpose if the society is not sensitised," he said.
In view of the difficulties involved in locating and
rescuing child domestic workers, Delhi Government has planned
measures such as asking RWAs to display at the main entry
points into localities placards declaring that no children are
employed there.
"Similar hoardings can be displayed by the market
associations also," the Delhi Government official said.
With the aim to create awareness, jingles prepared by ILO
are being played on FM radio and TV channels have also agreed
to show anti-child labour messages, he said.
Bureau Report
