Govt chalks out plans to check child labour

Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy says the government is working on a new policy to eradicate the evil

• SIs to be equipped with full powers to take prompt action
• Govt to take inputs from stakeholders
• A high-level meet to be held on Sept 19 to discuss new labour policy

Hyderabad: To eradicate the menace of child labour, the Telangana government is coming out with a new policy by taking inputs and suggestions from all stakeholders. This was revealed by Minister for Home and Labour Naini Narasimha Reddy on Tuesday.

The State is mulling to authorise sub inspectors (Sis) in each police station limits with full powers of acting upon cases of child labour noticed in that respective area. SIs not only would rescue children and get them admitted in schools, but also would take stringent action against law violators, he said.

The Network of International Legal Activists (NILA) organised a meeting at Administrative Staff College India (ASCI) in Hyderabad about Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill on Tuesday.

Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya, Naini Narasimha Reddy, Secretary (Labour) Harpreet Singh, Hyderabad Collector Rahul Bojja and representatives of various voluntary organisations fighting against child labour took part in the meeting.

Speaking from State’s perspective, Naini vowed to curb child labour completely in the new State. A high-level meeting was being organised on September 19 to discuss about the new labour policy, he said and asked NGOs to submit their suggestions, which would be taken into consideration.

Chief Minister’s KG-to-PG free education concept was partly aimed at ending the menace of child labour, Naini added. Meanwhile, commenting on child labour law passed by the NDA in Rajya Sabha in May, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya called upon voluntary organisations not to fault the decision to allow children below 14 years of age to work in family enterprises, that too after school hours.

A child belonging to a weavers’ family or a beedi worker’s family would assist their parents and it was not definitely child labour, he explained. Dattatreya pointed out that he too assisted his mother in onion selling business during his childhood because of poor financial background.

He, however, asked NGOs to submit their views and suggestions which he would definitely consider while introducing amendments on Child Labour bill in Parliament. The NILA founders Dr Mamatha Raghuveer, Dr T Vasantha Lakshmi Ravi Kumar and members of various NGOs expressed their views on the subject.