Gujarat government has announced to eradicate child labour from the state and a massive drive will be launched next month in this regard.
Gujarat Minister for Labour and Employment Vijay Rupani told this to media. Rupani said we will eliminate child labour from the state.
Initially, we have planned to make 6 districts including Arvalli, Mahisagar, Narmada, Chhotaudepur, Amreli and Dang Child Labour free by December 2015, the minister added.”
From July, we will launch a drive, which includes awareness campaigns, surprise inspections, door-to-door checks and raids, in these 6 districts. Different Task force teams will conduct raids, he added. These 6 districts were chosen on priority as the school drop out ratio was found to be higher as compared to other districts.
We want to first focus on those districts, where the drop-out ratio is higher. One of the possible reasons could be that children may have been forced to work as labourers.
We will take all steps including conducting raids, to find out about such children.
As per the law, children under the age of 14 cannot be employed at any commercial establishment.
However, those children who help their parents in their traditional work involving some art and skill are not considered as child labourers, even if they are under the age of 14, said Rupani.
Giving details about the children rescued by the state Labour Department in the past couple of years, Rupani stated that 369 were rescued in 2013, while 333 were rescued in 2014. “Out of 702 children rescued in 2013 and 2014, 504 were from other states, including Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, while 198 were from Gujarat,” Rupani said.
