The battle against child labour in Haryana seems endless, with stories of plight of child workers hitting the headlines time and again. While Haryana Government claims to be toiling hard with their three-point crusade to eliminate the child labour from the State, the situation still remains dismal and the problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the State authorities.
As per a latest data, as many as 2,402 children were rescued/withdrawn from work and rehabilitated in Haryana during the year 2014-15 (upto December 2014) under National Child labour Project (NClP). The Centre’s NClP scheme is implemented for rehabilitation of child labour in the area of high concentration across the country. At present, the scheme is implemented in three districts of Haryana namely Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panipat.
In Haryana, 631 children were rescued/withdrawn from work, rehabilitated and mainstreamed under NClP in the year 2013-14 while 1,722 children were rescued in 2012-13 and 1,895 children in year 2011-12. The situation is not so gloomy in the neighbouring agrarian State of Punjab, where the NClP is implemented in there districts namely Jalandhar, ludhiana and Amritsar. In Punjab, 290 children were rescued/withdrawn from work and rehabilitated in 2014-15 (upto December 2014), 957 children in year 2013-14 and 168 in year 2011-12.
Under Centre’s NClP, children rescued/withdrawn from work are enrolled in the special schools, where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, nutrition, stipend, health care before mainstreaming into formal education system. Many surveys in the past have revealed that Haryana has a large number of child labour employed in cotton sector. Also, there are instances that children of eastern and central India are being trafficked to Haryana and neighbouring States due to demand for child labour in brick kilns industry.
Notably, Haryana’s three-point crusade to fight child labour includes ‘strict enforcement’ of Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, ‘awareness’ about the same and ‘rehabilitation’ of children rescued during the raids. According to the officials of State labour Department, a large number of child labourers were reported from districts like Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Ambala in the past. While there is more than 90 per cent compliance to the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulations) Act in the industrial units, the unorganised sector including the construction sites, roadside dhabas etc continues to flout the child labour laws in Haryana.
As the problem of child labour persists at many places, it appears that little impact has been made so far in the State, where children’s rights are reportedly violated every day. During census 2001, child workers in Haryana were 2,53,491. During a previous survey for identification of child labour, 5,876 working children were identified in Panipat and out of the total 3,112 children were found working in hazardous industries or occupations.
Under the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulations) Act 1986, children under the age of 14 years are banned from working in factories, mines or hazardous industries. Children under the age of 14 are also not allowed to work in establishments like residential hotels, restaurants, eating-house, theatres, places related to public.