The responsibility of a family is utmost in curbing incidences of child labour, said District Principal and Sessions Judge, K S Mudgal, here on Thursday.

She was speaking at the International Day Against Child Labour, organised by district administration, Zilla Panchayat, District Legal Services Forum, department of Woman and Child Development and department of Labour.

She raised concerns on the increase in cases of harassment against children at home, schools and even hospitals. “Such incidents are being reported on a daily basis, which indicates that there is a long way to go in abolishing these inhumane acts,” she said.

She noted that there were 205 million child labourers in the country, out of which, the condition of over 100 million children were in a deplorable condition. While several laws and regulations exist to prevent child labour, there is no awareness among the general populace for the proper implementation of the same. Departments and non-government agencies should increase their efforts towards creating awareness on the same, she said.

Corporator Srikantaiah, lamented that the numbers of child labourers was not decreasing as poverty and illiteracy still prevailed in a large scale in the country. “The only way to eradicate instances of child labour is by alleviating poverty in the country,” she said. Welfare schemes in this direction is very essential. Most of the child labourers usually come from families with many children, she said.

In-charge Deputy Commissioner, S Palaiah, commenting on the number of child labourers in Mysore, said that Narasimharaja constituency had the highest number of cases. He said that Woman and Child Development department too should come up with programmes to curb such instances, he added.