'Many child labourers employed in govt servants' homes'

The child labourers who are working in organisations or institutions are considerably less compared to the domestic child labourers in the State.

 

Despite the government bringing a ban on domestic child labour in the year 2006, the system has not been completely abolished yet. The alarming fact is that, several child labourers are employed in the houses of the government servants, setting a bad trend, said Joint Labour Commissioner and Karnataka State Child Labour Eradication Society Member Secretary J T Jinkalappa.

He was speaking at the training and workshop on Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 organised for the inspectors appointed in Dakshina Kannada district. The workshop was organised by the district administration and Zilla Panchayat in association with Labour Department, Women and Child Welfare Department and other departments at Nethravathi hall in ZP on Thursday. 

Jinkalappa said that the Supreme Court has set a deadline of December, 2012 to make the nation child labour free. “With only a few months left, the Chief Secretary of the State has been filing affidavit once in three months to know the status of the child labour cases in Karnataka. The survey of child labours has been completed in 20 districts and the work is pending in rest of the districts,” he said.

Informing about the provisions of the Act, Jinkalappa said that Act deals with Article 23 and 24 of the Indian Constitution prohibiting forced labour and human trafficking which is punishable under the law and prohibition of children below the age of 14 working in factories and other hazardous employment. However, there is no prohibition on non-hazardous work, but it is only regulated.  

Stressing on the significance of rehabilitating the child labourers, the Commissioner said that child labour system can not be overthrown until and unless proper rehabilitation is not provided to the rescued child labourers. Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, Principal Senior Civil Judge R V Patil asked the inspectors to bring awareness about Child Labour Act among the people. 

ZP CEO Dr K N Vijaya Prakash presided over the function.