Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray has called upon all stakeholders to combat the inhuman practice of child labour.
He was inaugurating a workshop-cum-panel discussion here for prohibition of child labour in the State as part of the Convergence Child Labour Project of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) held under the auspices of the State Labour Institute.
Child labour is simply understood as depriving childhood of children by engaging them in works, which should be performed by adults, and also engaging them in activities which are harmful to their physical and mental development, robbing them of schooling and entertainment, enslaving and separating them from their families, speaker said during the discussion.
Under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), as many as 772 special schools are functioning in 24 districts of the State for non-formal education and vocational training to rehabilitate the children after withdrawing from work. While 36,526 children are presently enrolled in these schools, 1,34,258 children have already been mainstreamed, claimed officials.
The ILO in coordination with the Labour & ESI Department has taken up the Convergence Child Labour Project, which prompts a collaborative effort of coordinating the key activities of various Departments, mainly Labour & ESI, School & Mass Education, Women & Child Development, ST & SC Development and Panchayati Raj.
The key activities under the project are identifying child labour-prone areas, focusing on the families of the child labourers, strengthening linkages, withdrawing and preventing children from doing hazardous works and testing and adopting important interventions. Kalahandi and Cuttack have been taken up as the pilot districts under the project with support from the ILO.
Labour Commissioner Hemant Sharma gave n introductory speech.
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