Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Allow us to go to school, demand child labourers

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI Dec. 9. Girl children employed in stainless steel, tin, sindoor and packaging units and as domestic help in and around Chennai today protested child labour and demanded quality education for all children up to Standard XII.

Under the aegis of the State chapter of the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL-TN), 69 girls aged 8-14, formed a human chain in front of Valluvar Kottam, as part of a two-day conference of these labourers being held here.

Children carried banners, which asked why the Indian Government suppressed information about sexual abuse, exploitation and torture in its first and second reports to the United Nations.

In a press release, the CACL said child labourers were paid only 30 per cent of what the adults were given. They demanded that their parents be employed and that they be allowed to go to school.

The girl child labourers will hold their State-level conference on February 12 and a national level conference will be held in Mysore in March 2002, according to the release.

V. Vasanthi Devi, Chairperson, State Commission for Women, said the girls employed as domestic help, survived on meagre, stale leftovers and often faced physical and sexual abuse by male employers. The high dropout rate in government-run schools was due to improperly structured syllabus and poor instruction facilities. Both girls and boys dropped out after Standards I and II, though the enrolment might be 100 per cent. Children were failed in primary classes repeatedly. The failure rate was 27 per cent and this reflected in poor retention in schools, she said.

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