CRY to Wipe Out Child Labour

The New Indian Express: Chennai: Tuesday, 05 August 2014.

Raising objections to the amendments proposed in the yet-to-be tabled Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2012, NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), has recommended abolition of all forms of child labour and extending the ban up to the age of 18.

Speaking during the launch of Click Rights Photo Book on July 31, a campaign against child labour and the proposed bill, through photographs, John Roberts, general manager, Development Support CRY (South) said that the proposed bill continues to retain the age of ‘child’ at 14 years.

“It also allows children aged between 14 and 18 years for non-hazardous work, a provision taken from the age-old Factories Act 1948. What we recommend is abolition of all forms of child labour till the age of 18 years and RTE be extended to children up to 18 years of age,” he said.

CRY also wants the government not to legitimise home-based work though the Bill. “There is a great demand for children in domestic work, where they are susceptible to abuse and are denied their right to education and recreation,” he added.

It also recommends removal of distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous work and strengthen livelihood opportunities and social security of families.

Elaborating on the status of child labour in TamilNadu, P Joseph Victor Raj, State convenor, Campaign Against Child Labour, said that according to the 2011 census, the State has over 1.51 lakh full-time workers between the age of 5 and 14 years and another 1.32 lakh marginal workers in the same age group who work less than six months a year.

Further, an RTI with the State Labour Department had revealed that they had conducted about 9.88 lakh inspections between 1997 and 2013 and detected over 10,121 violations.

He, however, said that 8,337 prosecutions were initiated, but there were only 949 convictions.

“The State has spent only 2.67 crore on child labour awareness programme and vocational training in 11 years, which shows that the Child Labour Act is ineffective.  If you look at workers below 18 years, there is another, 11 lakh full-time workers and 4 lakh marginal workers in the State,” he explained.