66,169 Child Labourers Rescued, Rehabilitated and Mainstreamed Under National Child Labour Project Scheme During 2018-19

66,169 Child Labourers Rescued, Rehabilitated and Mainstreamed Under National Child Labour Project Scheme During 2018-19

Total 1,44,783 Child Labourers Rescued & Rehabilitated During Last three Years

Child Labour is an outcome of various social-economic problems such as poverty, economic backwardness and illiteracy.  Government is following a holistic and multi-pronged strategy for elimination of child labour completely.

The Government has amended the Child Labour (Prohibition  & Regulation) Act, 1986 and enacted Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 which inter-alia covers complete prohibition on employment or work of children below 14 years of age in all occupations and processes; linking the age of the prohibition of employment with the age for free and compulsory education under Right to Education Act, 2009; prohibition on employment of adolescents ( 14 to 18 years of age) in hazardous occupations or processes and making stricter punishment for the employers contravening the provisions of the Act.

Subsequent to the amendment in Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, Government has framed Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2017.

The Government is also implementing the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme for rehabilitation of child labour. Under the NCLP Scheme, children in the age group of 9-14 years are rescued/withdrawn from work and enrolled in the NCLP Special Training Centres, where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, mid day meal, stipend, health care, etc. before being mainstreamed into formal education system. Children in the age group of 5-8 years are directly linked to the formal education system through a close coordination with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

As per the information received from State Governments the number of child labourers who were rescued/withdrawn from work, rehabilitated and mainstreamed under National Child Labour Project Scheme during the last three years, State-wise is given in the table below-  

This information was provided by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Union Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.