Three-pronged strategy to eliminate child labourers

The New Indian Express, April 20, 2013

The State Government is working on a convergence model on a pilot basis under which families of the child labourers are being linked to various poverty alleviation schemes. The Government plans to replicate the model in other districts soon.

The pilot project is being implemented in Cuttack and Kalahandi. Under the project, a three-pronged strategy has been adopted which includes an Education Action Programme (EAP) for children in the age group of 5 to 14 years and vocational training for children between 14 and 17 years. The third strategy is to link at least 500 families of direct beneficiaries to the Education Action Programme so that child labour can be eliminated by addressing issues of poverty through the convergence model.

According to Labour Commissioner Hemant Sharma, the Government will also soon come out with a State Action Plan on child labour which will spell out its strategies to fight the social menace. The draft action plan is ready and will be discussed with different stakeholders at a State level workshop. The strategies of the action plan will focus on enforcement, rescue and rehabilitation, education, skill development and awareness activities. A State-level monitoring committee would be put in place for the purpose.

Currently, children rescued from workplaces are enrolled into the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools in the State. Although 1,030 NCLP special schools were sanctioned by May last year, only 618 schools are functioning where 28,840 children were enrolled.

So far, 1,23,899 children have been brought into the mainstream, the NCLP reports claim.

 In Odisha, no comprehensive survey to find out the population of child labour has been carried out which keeps the actual scenario extremely complicated. The last survey, carried out in 1997, puts the population of child labours at 2,15,222 of which 23,761 were working in hazardous sector and 1,91,461 in non-hazardous sector.

However, non government sector  organisations working on child labour dispute the figures.

In fact, the Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) describes out-of-school children as child labour and their number stands at 31,000 in the State. The OPEPA authorities are currently planning to re-assess the number and match it with the NCLP.

The Government recently has opened seasonal hostels in Bargarh, Kalahandi and Nuapada to enrol children of migrant labourers. More than 5,000 children have already been admitted in the current season in the hostels.