Date:08/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/08/stories/2006100818400300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Package for rescued child labourers lacking

Rasheed Kappan and Swathi Shivanand

NGOs want Government to put in place a system that works

Rasheed Kappan

and Swathi Shivanand

BANGALORE: Is there a government-sponsored, comprehensive rehabilitation package for rescued child labourers?

No, say non-governmental organisations (NGOs), quasi-judicial agencies and child labour experts. They want the Government to take the lead and put in place a rehabilitation system that actually works.

Without such a system, resources simply go waste. Here are the cold facts: Forty per cent of the government homes for children have no children. Rehabilitation efforts by NGOs and government departments are sporadic and do not make much of a difference to the larger picture.

"You have the Labour Department, the Women and Child Welfare Department, the Education Department. There are 16 Union Ministries working on child development, but they work in isolation, in pockets. There are a lot of programmes started by these departments. But a lot of the money is just going back," says Sheila Devaraj, a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and director, Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA).

Initiatives

The Domestic Child Labour Elimination Project (DCLEP) is a State Government and UNICEF initiative that focusses on children working in the domestic help sector. Suchitra Rao of UNICEF says that after rescuing a child, the child and his/her family are counselled and attempts are made to unite the child with the family.

If the child has no place to say, then residential facilities are provided and the child is then admitted to school.

"We are still working with about 25 to 30 schools and interacting with the principals and teachers on how they could treat children rescued from hazardous working places," she says.

No review mechanism

The Karnataka chapter of the National Child Labour Project has institutional structures in the form of schools, but it fails due to "the lack of a proper review mechanism," says a resource person who requested anonymity.

Solomon J.P. of the Movement for Alternatives and Youth Awareness (MAYA) says that efforts by the Government towards educating former child labourers have failed, as most schools do not have infrastructure and the relevant curriculum.

"Most such children are the first generation in their families to go to school. If you do not create interest in the child in learning, then he or she will drop out," he points out.

Attempts being made

Ms. Rao says that the Government, however, does make attempts to link several education and income-generation schemes to benefit the rescued children and their families.

Economic assistance under the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana, vocational training in Industrial Training Institutes and providing one family member of a child labourer with employment under the Antyodaya scheme are some such initiatives, she points out.