More coordination needed for rescue, rehablitation of child

Aiming to streamline greater interstate coordination for rehabilitation of rescued children, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights held a meeting to discuss implementation of Delhi Plan of Action for Abolition of Child Labour with other State Commissions.
Chairperson DCPCR, Arun Mathur, who outlined the work being done in Delhi on the issue of child labour as well as need for rehabilitation of children through the assistance and cooperation of other state governments, said "there is a need for a greater role for State Commissions in facilitating a a more coordinated approach towards children belonging to different states and rescued in Delhi," Mathur stated.

The Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Kushal Singh agreed interstate coordination is crucial to rehabilitation of children.
The Task Forces have facilitated a large number of rescues (1450) since the judgment of the Delhi High Court in 2009. Rajendra Dhar of the Labour Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, pointed out that over 3734 children have been rescued from different districts of Delhi between July 2009 and June 2013. This includes 2357 children below the age of 14 years and 1377 children above the age of 14 years.
It was also shared that over Rs 1,17,99,360 have been recovered from employers towards rehabilitation of the rescued children and over Rs 35 lakhs recovered from employers as arrears of minimum wages.

Between July 2009 and June 2013, Rs.35, 13,715 were recovered as arrears of minimum wages from defaulting employers.

S B K Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police, indicated FIRs are being filed in all cases of child labour and bonded labour as per the court order. It was reported that prosecution has been initiated in 1450 cases including 449 by Labour Department and 1001 FIRs by the Police.
As an outcome of this interface, it was agreed that there is a need for more streamlined procedures of rescue and restoration within Delhi through development of standard operating procedures.
The standard operating procedures would also ensure that flow of information between different stakeholders is facilitated. The need for collation of database of child labour on a regular basis was also stressed.