Govt has no data on action against child labour in '09

Three years since a complete ban on child labour in the country, more than one crore children are still working in various areas and worse, the government has no data on enforcement of the ban during 2009, child rights organisations said citing government's RTI reply.

"In the last three years, a mockery has been made out of the law," said Bhuwan Ribhu, national secretary of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a child rights organisation, which had filed an RTI query with the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment.

"The reply was quite shocking. The ministry has no data whatsoever on the enforcement of the ban for the year 2009," said Ribhu, although estimates suggest there are 30 million children working across sectors.

As per labour ministry, a total of 12,666,377 children were working in various sectors including agriculture.

An estimated 185,595 children are employed as domestic help and in small roadside eateries while most child domestic workers are trafficked by placement agencies operating in poor states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In October 2006, the government amended the 23-year-old child labour act, bringing two more categories -- children working as domestic helps and those employed in road-side eateries, hotels, restaurants, teashops, spas and other recreation centres -- under the prohibited occupations, thus enforcing a complete ban on employment of children.

"As child labour is both traditionally accepted and widely prevalent in India, giving an accurate data is a big challenge," Basu said.

But, Ashok Kumar, Convenor of CACL Advocacy, said that they believed there were more than 30 million children currently working in various fields across the country.

Speaking about the RTI query filed by Campaign Against Child Trafficking (CACT), CACL's Delhi chapter, with Delhi's Labour Department, Kumar said the reply was quite shocking and the situation in the national capital was pathetic.

As per the information we received, only 128 children have been rescued from from 23 houses and 105 from eateries and dhabas between 2006 and 2008 in Delhi, Kumar said.

The worse part is that the children were not rehabilitated. They were simply sent back to their parents to live in acute poverty, he said.

Only 12 rescued children received compensation in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines. But contrary to the specified procedure, no relative of the child labourers was given job. Instead, six families received Rs 5,000 each while six others got Rs 20,000.