Where will govt rehabilitate child labourers?

Labour Minister flagged off a walk against child labour from Kanteerva Indoor Stadium yesterday, but was not forthcoming when questioned the lack of rehabilitation facilities

Where will govt rehabilitate child labourers?

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Where will govt rehabilitate child labourers?

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Labour Minister flagged off a walk against child labour from Kanteerva Indoor Stadium yesterday, but was not forthcoming when questioned the lack of rehabilitation facilities

Rough road: Bache Gowda blamed the lack of co-ordination between
the state and the centre for the Labour Department's inability to function
smoothly. Pic/Ramesh HS

The argument escalated further when activists questioned the lack of rehabilitation facilities offered by the department and wanted to know where the rehabilitated children were. Gowda said, "We have rescued over 1 lakh children since 2001 and a penalty of Rs 74 lakh has been collected from offenders." Questioning this fact, core committee member of the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), Lakshapathi claimed that the department is functioning in an isolated manner.

"We want to know where are the 1 lakh children who were rescued. The situation has gone from bad to worse in the state as the Labour Department is working in isolation. It is not sufficient to just rescue these children. The department needs to focus on full rehabilitation of these kids," he said. The minister, justifying his stance, blamed the lack of co-ordination between the state and the centre. "Like any other department, for efficient and smooth functioning, we need proper co-ordination between the state and the centre," Gowda added.

Complete waste?
Long time activist Mathew Philip, who is also executive director of CACL said that most of the cases go unreported. "The third action plan by the Labour department ensures that child labour would be eradicated from the state by 2020," he said. Mathew informed that on the other hand the government contradicts this, as the RTE Act claims that all children in the state should be studying in schools from June 2010. "They are wasting time and money and creating fanfare about such anti-labour day celebrations," he added. Meanwhile, as per the HC directive, anyone found violating the law related to child labour would be strictly penalised. "A fine up to Rs 5,000 will be imposed along with a huge compensation payable by the violator to the child's family. Also, a three year jail term can be included for violating the law," said Shankrappa, HC advocate.