“Civilised society organisations (CSOs) should include eradication of child labour as their main agenda,” said UNICEF Co-ordinator (Davangere) Konila Raghavendra Bhat.

Speaking at a workshop on combating child labour through initiatives of civil society organisations Network Karnataka organised by the Campaign Against the Child Labour-Karnataka here on Tuesday, he said child labour leads to poverty.

“Whether we have been able understand the depth of child labour problem is a question to answered by the civilised society organisations. Those who employ children are rich and educated. We should speak to those educated and rich who employ child labour in their house and try to convince them to send the child to the school, rather than speaking to the child’s parents.”

Stating that child labour issue is a developmental problem, Mr Bhat said unless we bring in child labour into the development policy we can not combat the the issue of child labour.

He said the 99 per cent of the school drop out girl children who are employed in houses undergo the harassment from the owners. The tears of such girl child is not heard by the civilised society organisations.

He called upon the civilised society organisations to raise their voice against the child labour.

Inaugurating the workshop, Domestic Servants Association President Sr Elis Mary said there is a need to create an awareness on the child labour in the society. Most of the children are hired and fired and they live in a miserable condition in the house of the owners.

Child Welfare Committee President Prof Hilda Rayappan said that there is a need to be committed to the cause of eradicating child labour.

CACL-K Convenors from DK, Renny D’Souza, Umesh Nayak of Chikmagalur, Ray David of Kodagu and Keshav Koteshwar of Udupi were present.