Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Action plan to eliminate child labour by 2007

By Ramya Kannan

Chennai April 29. Coming in time for Anti-Child Labour Day on April 30, the State Action Plan For the Elimination of Child Labour has got the nod from the Chief Minister.

The plan hopes to ensure that all children are removed from hazardous occupations by 2005 and in the next two years (2007), completely eliminate child labour in the State.

As part of its implementation, a State Child Labour Rehabilitation Welfare Society is to be set up, to co-ordinate the activities of all departments concerned in the achievement of the goal. Departments that would be roped in include Social Welfare, Labour, Rural Development, Education, and the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan (SSA), civic bodies and the district administrations, according to sources in the Labour Department.

The Society will be headed ex-officio by the Commissioner for Labour and will focus on converging all activities related to the elimination of child labour that are being implemented so far.

It will fix the indicators to qualify the role of every department involved in the process, and incentives will be announced for those who achieve the targets satisfactorily.

"We hope to reach the grass roots of society. Unless we do that, we will not be able to achieve the target of eliminating child labour from Tamil Nadu," according to an official who participated in drafting the Action Plan.

Money will be alloted through the scheme to create an awareness of the issue. There are also provisions by which the Society can approach corporates and international agencies for funds to implement certain sections of the Action Plan.

Though there are no existing provisions for initiating a study to estimate the total number of child labourers in Tamil Nadu, which remains a bone of contention between NGOs and the State, the Society will liaise with the SSA which is already on the job.

The Society has also decided to appoint an external agency to evaluate the implementation of the scheme periodically in order to maintain credibility and ensure that the targets would be met.

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