“Schedule 5 of the article allows employment of child labours in non-hazardous sectors like agriculture, while Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act banned children under-14 from working as domestic servants in dhabas, restaurants, hotels and hospitality sectors,” speakers from different child rights organisations said here.
“The crux of the problem was that the Act did not apply to child labour in agriculture or bidi industry,” said Partha Roy, state advisor to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on the eve of World Anti-Child Labour Day during a programme organised by NGO, ‘Save the Children’.
He lamented that state commissions for protection of child rights were not set up in many states, including in West Bengal. These commissions which would have the same power as the state commissions for human rights, has come up only in six states including Bihar and Orissa, he said.
“The Right to Education, enacted in 2010 as a fundamental right too needed to be reviewed,” said Prabir Basu, National Convenor of Campaign Against Child Labour.
Provisions of free and compulsory education should be incorporated in the Act to ensure that no children is required to pay money for their admission under the ‘SSA’, he said.
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