Over 8,000 children in Delhi's garment industry: NGO

A total of 8,044 children were working in garment industries in the national capital, a report said on Friday.

An NGO Save the Children's report 'The Hidden Workforce - A study on child labour in the garment industry in Delhi', revealed that Okhla area in south Delhi had the highest number of employed children -- 1,922.

The least number of children involved in garment-related activities was reported from Tughlakabad area.

The study for the report, whose objective was to estimate the number of children working in Delhi's garment industry while also understanding their working and living conditions in such industries, was conducted across five districts and 14 locations in the city.

Speaking at the release of the report, Delhi Women and Child Development (WCD) minister Sandeep Kumar proposed to set up a committee to combat the menace of child labour in alliance with civil society groups.

He said the Delhi government was committed to fight child labour.

"Even though there is lack of information and data on state-specific child labour, there is sufficient evidence - such as in this report -- that it has never been more urgent to recognise and tackle the issue of home-based child labour," he said.

The report also found that a significantly higher number of children seemed to be engaged in household-level work with 87 percent children working in home settings and only 13 percent worked in 'addas' (household-based units where unrelated adults and children work together).

The NGO said the move by the union cabinet to allow children below the age of 14 years to work in home-based enterprises was "surprising".

"These external factors act as strong push factors for vulnerable migrant families in the urban context to adopt harmful coping practices such as child labour, including home based work/enterprises," the report said.

Calling for a blanket ban on child labour for children up to 14 years of age, the NGO's chief executive officer Thomas Chandy said: "To address the issue, better implementation of child labour laws needed to be supplemented with improved quality of education, skill development at school-level."

"Also, a convergent approach -- where the government, civil society, communities and the industry come together -- to ensure that all children get their basic rights to education, protection and a healthy start in life," he added.