Over one-third of child labourers in MP are illiterate: CRY

NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) has analysed India's 2011 Census data and came out with startling revelations that about one-third of child labourers are illiterate in Madhya Pradesh.

According to 2011 Census, there were 7,00,239 child labourers in Madhya Pradesh.

Of these children, around 60% were marginal workers who work for less than six months in a year. The remaining 2,86,310 children were main workers, working for more than six months in a year, CRY said in a statement today.

Detailed analysis suggests that over one lakh main workers in the age group of 7-14 cannot read and write, while there are about 1.75 lakh marginal workers for whom education is not a priority, it said.

35% child labourers in the state are illiterate, which comes to more than one in three such children, it said.

Nationally, close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names, the analysis said.

"This is a very unfortunate situation and if it does not change, they will remain trapped in the intergenerational cycle of poverty and unemployment," Soha Moitra, Regional Director, CRY (North India) said.