Hyderabad: With over 21,474 teenagers out of school in Telangana, a strong monitoring is needed to ensure that there is no child labour, said Imtiyaz Rahim, district child protection officer.
Over 865 child labourers were rescued in the past one year in TS. While the Centre plans to eradicate child labour by 2030, the state aims at achieving a child labour-free status by 2021.
To achieve this, an action plan is formulated keeping in mind the new amendments in the child labour law. The existing Child Labour Act, 1986, was amended with reference to the Right to Education Act, 2009.
The new Act prohibits child labour up to fourteen years of age and engaging teenagers aged 15 to 18 years in hazardous occupations such as mining has been declared illegal.
Varsha Bhargavi, state coordinator of the state resource centre for elimination of child labour, said, “The labour department was selected as the nodal department to keep a check on elimination of child labour by the state government in May. To make Telangana a child labour-free, an action plan is drafted by bringing the labour, school education, wo-men development de-partments under one roof.”
Velpur, a district in Telangana, has been child labour-free since 2001 and the labour department will be using this in their campaign against child labour. The department has also been holding meetings with resident welfare associations to reduce child labour in urban areas.
Migration of labourers from rural areas to urban areas and the influx of new apartment complexes are creating problems as child labours are employed in these apartments.
