Gujarat: Campaign launched for awareness on child labour

The campaign will involve various initiatives to promote child rights, including the participation of non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens

PGurus Newsdesk

May 1, 2023

The campaign will involve various initiatives to promote child rights, including the participation of non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens

Campaign seeks demarcation around schools as per Right To Education to curb child labour

A 44-day campaign has been announced by the Child Rights Collective in Gujarat to raise awareness about creating a child labour-free India.

Starting from April 30 to June 12, the campaign will involve various initiatives to promote child rights, including the participation of non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens.

The program coincides with International Labor Day on May 1 and will focus on addressing child labor in collaboration with the national partner network Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL).

Sukhdev Patel, Founder Director of the Census Institute and former representative of the Right To Education (RTE), National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Gujarat, said: “What we lack is data and transparency to address the problem. To address the problem, a programme was created to realize the fundamental rights of the RTE law for the eradication of child labor. Under this programme, the first rule is to delineate every government primary school in the surrounding area. And update the data of children under 18 in the delineated area every year.”

“This is the responsibility of the Panchayat Department. Because of the failure to do this work, no basic information is available on how many children are in school. Or how many children work as laborers? If this information is available, then there is a possibility of helping children in the state,” added Patel.

Sociologist and former Vice Chancellor of Bhavnagar University, Vidhyut Joshi said: “As per UNICEF, child labor has increased rapidly post-pandemic and the problem is going to be worse. When it comes to gender, boys surpass girls in getting into child labor. The Gujarat government should take this into account. NGOs alone cannot meet the data, resources, and cooperation required to address this problem.”

One of the major issues highlighted by Joshi is that the Right to Education only covers 5 percent of the work required to achieve a child labour-free state.

While the Constitution provides for the right to education, as of 2021, there is no census on the number of child laborer in the state. Rescue operations to rehabilitate potential child laborer are also minimal, conducted only twice a month in each district.

Patel called for greater efforts by the government to rehabilitate potential child laborer in Gujarat.

“Gujarat has always been a model state. Why not set better standards even in rehabilitating potential child laborer?” he said.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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