The Union Labour Ministry is contemplating a complete ban on employment of children up to 14 years, as also prohibition on making children below 18 years work in hazardous occupations.
The Amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, were discussed in the first meeting of the tripartite Central Advisory Board held last weekend.
Once it comes into force, the Act will apply to industries such as fireworks, mining, brick kilns and so on, where children are employed in huge numbers. The overall implementation of the Act would rest with the District Magistrate and the subordinate executive magistry. The amendments also propose to make offences under the Act cognisable with stiffer penalties.
Under the proposed amendments, parents or guardians of children will not be punishable. Also, there will be no bar on children helping their families after school hours or vacations in the field, home-based work, forest gathering and vending.
“This has become essential due to the enactment of Right to Education Act, 2009, under which every child in the age group of 6-14 years is to be provided free and compulsory education,” according to the Labour Ministry .
This issue has already been discussed with all State Secretaries and representatives from Central Ministries, where almost all the participants were unanimous on the issue of complete ban on employment of children up to the age of 14 years, said the Union Labour Minister, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge.
Mr Kharge said in pursuance of the scheme under the National Policy on Child Labour, 271 districts were identified for implementation. At present, the scheme is operational in 266 districts in 20 States covering around 3.39 lakh children through 7,300 special schools.
Under the scheme, children withdrawn from work are admitted into special schools where they are provided bridge education, vocational training, stipend of Rs 150, mid-day meals, healthcare, and so on.
According to the National sample Survey Organisation, India has close to 50 lakh working children aged 5-14 years.