Chennai: The government’s recent decision to amend the Child Labour Act has come in for severe criticism from several child welfare NGOs. The law now allows children under 14 to work in “family enterprises” and in non-hazardous conditions, outside school hours. At a press meet to flag off a campaign against the proposed amendments, Dr Vasanthi Devi, a former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, said the amendments suggest that while the well off kids could play before and after school hours, poor kids should slog it out at home or in the fields.
According to a case study documented by World Vision, an NGO, in a village in Vellore, of the 25 children enrolled in the National Child Labour Project School (NCLP), only 10 have been to school. The rest do ‘beedi-work’ before and after school hours. On the matter of allowing children to work in non-hazardous conditions, Ms Virgil D’Sami, State convener, Forum for Promotion of Child Participation said all forms of labour were hazardous, if not physically, psychologically.
A former child labourer, Ms Mala, who was working as a house maid, said despite her work being under the category of ‘non-hazardous’ and she was allowed to go to school, she never got a chance to play or do her homework. She added that she repeatedly thought she should give up studying. The campaign is to coincide with the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12.
