India gears up for the fight against worst kind of child labour till the age of 18

29 July 2010, New Delhi: Addressing the first South Asian Regional Consultation on Child Labour on Agriculture, Shri Harish Rawat,  Hon’ble Minister of State for Labour & Employment announced that the Government is making a roadmap towards ratification of ILO convention 182 on worst forms of child labour. India is one of the few countries in the world that have still not ratified the international convention that prohibits child labour in hazardous occupations till the age of 18.

The Minister said: “even if there is a single child engaged in child labour, it is a challenge for us as government and to all of you as citizens and civil society partners.” The consultation was organised by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and Global March Against Child Labour (GM) today at Constitutional Club, New Delhi.

Also addressing the Conference, Justice M. K. Sarma, Supreme Court of India said “According to my estimate, there are at least 1.5 million child labourers in Delhi alone. One can understand the situation in the rest of the country. The judiciary has provided several directions in the matter of child labour yet their implementation is very slow. The formation of the State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights for instance has not happened in most of the state though the directions were given in 2005.” He stressed for the formation of a committee by the Central Government for rehabilitation of rescued child labourers.

Lack of proper education, lacuna in the effective implementation of the laws, unawareness among the masses about the hazards of child labour clubbed with social bias and strong hold of traditions are some of the main reasons behind the persistent existence of child labour. These were some of the views that were discussed in this one day Consultation.

The conference highlighted the issues related with the child labour in agriculture sector, issues that are most prevalent yet most ignored and least discussed. Speaking at the inaugural session, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson, Global March Against Child Labour said: “There are four deficits- educational, legal, moral and social deficit, which are preventing the elimination of child labour. Only when we all wake up to the challenge and take an action oriented approach on child labour and engage the community, we will be able to end child labour.”

Nitte Adyanthaya, Governing Board Member, ILO (and Senior Vice President, INTUC) said: “By eliminating poverty and providing quality education only can we end child labour. Ratification of the international conventions 182 on worst forms of child labour and Convention 138 on minimum age on priority by India.” Ramdev Prasad, Bihar Child Labour Commission; Suneet Chopra, Secretary, Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union and Simon Steyne, the Director of operations, ILO’s International Program to End Child Labour (IPEC) were the others in the inaugural session.

A Nepalese girl shared her story of bondage in Nepal and questioned “How can we speak of technological advancement when child labour is still present?” She exhorted all participants that all countries should join hands and raise a common voice to end child labour, only then would it end. A speaker from Bangladesh spoke of their successful ventures in educating over 1.2 million children through their 38,000 schools, while a Sri Lankan delegate from the trade union shared their view of child labour being very less there apart from tea plantations. Others suggested that corporates involved in agricultural activities should check that child labour is not employed in the supply chain. These people were of the opinion that these corporates should take the initiative as part of their corporate-social responsibility. 

Over 170 delegates from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated in this first ever conference on child labour in agriculture.

Speaking of the way forward, Ramesh Gupta, President, BBA said, “It is important to also see child labour not only as a social evil but also with a crime perspective. It is only then that the society would be able to eliminate child labour. We shall have several other national level meetings to take this forward and draw out a roadmap to end child labour in agriculture.”

Know more>>