DNA:
New Delhi: Monday, 20 October 2014.
The Nobel
Peace Prize to child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi may have put the
spotlight on the issue of child labour, but his NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan says
Delhi government is not serious about dealing with the "menace",
unlike many other states.
The NGO,
which was set up by Satyarthi in 1980, said that as many as 238 rescued child
labourers belonging to Delhi, many of whom were declared bonded labourers, are
yet to be rehabilitated as per the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976.
"Under the Act, it is incumbent upon the authorities to ensure the
rehabilitation of the rescued children by creating a rehabilitation-cum-welfare
fund of Rs 25,000 of which Rs 20,000 shall be paid by the employer as a fine
and the rest shall come from the state," said BBA chairperson RS
Chaurasia.
In a letter
to the chairperson of the District Task Force on child labour in May, 2013,
Rakesh Senger of BBA had said that there was a need to urgently take up the
matter and rehabilitate all the rescued children. "While the reply came
from all the other state governments on the rehabilitation of rescued children,
government departments in Delhi keep on dodging the matter and shirking
responsibility by putting the onus on each other," Senger said.
The labour
department of Delhi government did not respond to BBA's criticism on the issue.
Senger said
that Delhi government had conveyed to BBA that the child labourers and their
families have changed their addresses in most of the cases, making them
difficult to locate and rehabilitate.
Chaurasia
said BBA had filed "an RTI application in this regard with the Department
of Women and Child Development" which responded "citing a reply from
the Child Welfare Committee that only the SDM of the areas concerned would have
the status report" on the rehabilitation of rescued children.
The vigilance
committees constituted for raid, rescue and rehabilitation of bonded child
labourers which are supposed to meet at regular intervals are lying
almost dysfunctional, he alleged. "On May 24 this year, we wrote to all
district magistrates in Delhi to constitute new vigilance committees at the
earliest, but did not receive a single reply," Chaurasia said.
Section 13 of
Bonder Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, stipulates that every state
government shall by notification in the official gazette, constitute such
committees in each district and sub-division as it may think fit.
Satyarthi,
60, was on October 10 named for this year's Nobel Peace prize along with
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai. He has been working for child rights for
over 30 years through BBA, the NGO which is credited with freeing over 80,000
child labourers across India.