Project to bring child labourers back to school

While many children will celebrate Nov 14 as Children's Day, the day dedicated to them, others will spend it working as usual in factories and households.

Intending to help such children overcome these dismal circumstances and get back to school, child rights advocacy group CRY Thursday launched Project Unlearn.

"There are about 10.1 million children, who will carry on with their daily routines - in factories, dhabas, households, fields and workshops on Children's Day. While these children are forced to learn much more than they should at their age, the circumstances force them to be out of school, away from learning what they really should," a statement from CRY said.

It added that the nationwide campaign aims to pull children out of these circumstances, un-learning those skills which deprive them of their rights and put them back to school.

The campaign will help 28,588 child labourers across CRY-supported projects in India to free themselves from the shackles of labour, go to school and be hopeful of a bright future.

Project Unlearn will encompass various events and interactive activities in major cities like street plays, flash mobs and exhibitions which will be organised across India.

Puja Marwaha, CEO, CRY, said that India is home to millions of child labourers who are forced to work at an age when they should be in classrooms.

"With minimum wages, long working hours, suffering abuse and exploitation, these children are deprived of their basic rights. With Project Unlearn we aim to spread awareness about this issue and shake people out of their indifference towards this grim reality that India faces," she said.