Thursday, July 16, 2009

New Delhi: In a landmark judgment that would strengthen rehabilitation and repatriation of rescued child labour, the Delhi high court has ruled that all child labour cases should now on be tried under the bonded labour and child labour laws, the Juvenile Justice Act and relevant sections of IPC.

Delivering the judgment on a PIL filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), justices AP Shah and Manmohan Singh said, "Today's children constitute tomorrow's future. We have to ensure they are educated, not exploited."

Directing the government to implement an action plan to "wipe out child labour from the capital within six months", the court gave its nod to a scheme submitted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Streamlining the procedure of rehabilitating rescued child labour and disbursing compensation, the court said the due compensation of  Rs20,000 must be immediately recovered from those employing children. The labour department cannot await a conviction order.

BBA counsel HS Phoolka and NCPCR had argued that since the labour department had no power to recover fines immediately after rescue operations, employers often escaped conviction as it could not be proved that they had indeed employed child labour.

Overruling the present system, the court said the power to collect fine would rest with the deputy commissioner (labour). "The money would be recovered as arrears of land revenue and used for the educational needs of the rescued child, even if s/he has subseque-ntly crossed the age of 14 years."

In case an employer argues his inability to pay compensation, the deputy commissioner shall have the power to attach and sell her/his property. As per the scheme submitted by NCPCR and accepted by the Delhi high court, a steering committee should be set up in each district and its members should include the deputy labour commissioner, a district-level health officer, deputy commissioner of police and a representative of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

NCPCR will implement an area-based scheme for out-of-school children as a pilot project in northwest Delhi and another for migrant child labour in south Delhi.

The bench also directed Delhi Police to make arrangements for conducting raids and arresting violators.