Citizens Foundation in collaboration with Government of Jharkhand, Apeksha Homoeo Society, CINI and MV Foundation at Jharkhand State labour Institute organised a State level Stakeholders’ Consultation to discuss and chalk out strategic plans to create child labour-free zones in Jharkhand on Tuesday.
Vishnu Kumar Principal Secretary, department of labour Employment & Training said, “Child labour is a social stigma and it is very necessary to eradicate it but what we need is the joint coordination of all the departments concerned to overcome this menace. Monitoring and accountability provisions have to be invoked, and proper rehabilitation rights for child labour victims should be ensured.We have also developed an action plan that is being worked on for the eradication of child labour by 2016.”
Ganesh Reddy, Advisor cum Member Expert group, NCPCR said that proper implementation of govt schemes is necessary but what we need is to change our attitude towards education specially in rural areas.Collective cooperation of government departments and schools and community is required to get rid o this social stigma.Children are the Human resource but we are not letting them develop properly.The Governments departments should come forward to work in a proper manner.
Sharing about the role of police in eradicating child labour free zones, Anurag Gupta, IG CID Said, “We need to sensitize people about Child laborers working in any sector and thus spread more awareness so that we can tackle the issue. We also need to identify areas that are more prone to child labour and work accordingly.”
Talking about the status of children in tribal areas, Pravin Desali, Project Director, Apeksha Homeo Society said, “Poor Situation of education has been seen in tribal areas. Critical situation of school and Mid Day Meal have been found in schools, so we need to pay attention on that area.” He also gave a power point presentation about making 127 villages as Child labour Free Zones in Maharashtra and also discussed as how it can replicated in Jharkhand.
Nandkumar, IAS, who has played a key role in making child labour free zones in Maharashtra said, “Every child should be admitted in full time formal schools to be retained and have access, further, he underlined the efforts made by the NGOs and public representatives and the community towards making child labour free zones.
“Child labour is not going to be eradicated overnight, but having the right law in place helps a lot.Child labour is not acceptable at all.We need to understand our responsibilty and should work ,” said Job Zachriah,State head,UNICEF.
Priti Srivastava gave the statistics of child labourers and also emphasized the need of creating awareness about the issue and effective enforcement of existing provisions of different legislations.
Ramesh Sharan, HOD,Economics departments,said that development is the best contraceptive for eliminating child labour from Jharkhand. Strong law with strong political commitment is necessary to eliminate child labour from society.