National Policy on Child Labour

REGIONAL CONFERENCES OF DISTRICT COLLECTORS  OF NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR PROJECT (NCLP) DISTRICTS  

Taking a step forward in its initiatives for the elimination of child labour in the country, Ministry of Labour & Employment recently organized a series of Regional Conferences of District Collectors of National Child Labour Projects (NCLP) districts. The purpose of these conferences was to review the implementation of the scheme in these districts and to obtain feedback from the District Collectors, who are also the chairpersons of the NCLP societies in the district.

 First Conference was held at Jubilee Hall, Hyderabad on 31^st January, 2005 for the review of the states of Southern Zone.  The Conference was attended by the District Collectors of NCLP districts in the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The Second Conference for the States of Western Zone was held on the 4^th of February at the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune. It was attended by the District Collectors from the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. 

The Third Conference for the States of the Northern Zone was held on 17^thFebruary at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie. The Conference covered the NCLP districts of the States of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

The Fourth Conference covering the States of Eastern Zone was recently concluded at Pashchim Bang Bangla Academy, Kolkata on the 23^rd February. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Shri Mohammad Amin, Hon’ble Minister of Labour, Government of West Bengal. The Conference was chaired by Shri K.M.Sahni, Secretary (Labour & Employment), Government of India and was attended by District Collectors, Project Directors and other officers from the NCLP Districts of these two States.

In his inaugural address, Shri Sahni expressed his thanks to the Hon’ble Minister as it reflected the concern of the State Government towards implementation of the Scheme. He urged the District Collectors and the Project Directors to come out of the bureaucratic mould and put their heart in achieving the noble objective of the Scheme. He added that it was not only the responsibility of the Central Monitoring Committee but also the State Government and District Collectors to see that this Scheme was properly implemented.

    Shri Sahni stated that the task was urgent not only in view of the Government’s commitment to eliminate child labour in hazardous areas by the end of the Tenth Plan, but also because with the opening of non-quota regime, the developed countries were using the presence of child labour at World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations as non-trade barrier to block import of our products in their countries. He observed that Collectors were not finding enough time to discharge their duties under the Scheme, whereas they should be taking up this challenge with missionary zeal.  He urged everyone to do some soul searching and to have a spirit of empathy and not sympathy towards this noble cause of elimination of child labour from our country.  

These conferences provided a forum for fruitful discussions highlighting various critical issues in operationalisation of the Scheme, like need to conduct child labour survey, provide vocational skills, convergence with other developmental schemes and a regular monitoring at the level of the State Governments. Ministry of Labour provided clarifications to many issues raised by the District Collectors and urged them to give personal attention for an effective implementation of the scheme in the district.