India Tries a New Approach to Controlling Child Labor

A comprehensive proposal to eliminate Indian child labor from the country has been submitted to the Planning Commission. It includes a convergent approach to tackle the problem of child labor along with a number of additional components like residential schools, etc.

The Government is implementing the National Child labor Project (NCLP) Scheme for rehabilitating children withdrawn from work in 250 districts of the country. Under the NCLP Scheme, children withdrawn from work are put in Special Schools where they are provided education, nutrition, vocational training, stipend and regular health check-ups.

The objective of the Scheme is to withdraw children from work and move them back into the formal system of education.The Government is also making efforts to economically empower the families of these children by covering them under other poverty alleviation & income generation schemes so they are not reliant on their children.

For the 11th Plan, the Government has proposed an expansion of the NCLP Scheme to 600 districts and has also proposed some additional features in the Scheme, such as residential schools in big cities for migrant child labor, vocational training for adolescents, etc.

The Indian Government has formed a Core Group headed by the Secretary for Labour & Employment with representatives from other concerned Central Government Ministries, viz. Ministry of Women & Child Development, Human Resource Development, Rural Development, Social Justice and Empowerment and Urban Housing & Poverty Alleviation for convergence with the Schemes of these Ministries for educational rehabilitation of child labor and the economic advancement of their families.

Net News Publisher