Guardians of child labourers unaware of rights: ASCPCR

Complete elimination of child labour in the North East has not been possible mainly due to the lack of awareness among the guardians of child workers, Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights said today.
"The government and all stakeholders are keen to eradicate child labour with several schemes initiated for the purpose, but the goal is yet to be reached primarily due to the lack of awareness of guardians," ASCPCR Chairperson Runumi Gogoi said at the launch of 'Let's Clean up the mess' campaign by World Vision India here.
The guardians were unaware of various schemes, especially the facilities available under the Right to Education, and as such the children were deprived of their basic rights and they continued to toil, she said.

A resolution was adopted a couple of years ago to make Guwahati- a child labour free city- but this mission was yet to be realised, Gogoi said.
Assam government's Deputy Labour Commissioner D Goswami said that nearly 80 per cent of child labourers in the state was under the domestic workers category with many employers believing that they were doing a favour to the children by employing them.
It was, therefore, imperative to ensure that the civil society was sensitised to rights of children and the various schemes and facilities due to them, Goswami said.