Status: Not ApprovedHEAD: 24_Bhu_DS_CHILD LABOURByline: Diana SahuPoor reporting, fewer prosecutions mar Odisha’s fight against child labourDiana.Sahu@timesofindia.comBhubaneswar: The employment of children in different labour-intensive sectors continues; notwithstanding this, reporting of child labour cases and enforcement remain weak in the State.The State implements the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, which bans the employment of children below 14 years of age in any work, and stray inspection and rescue drives continue throughout the year. However, there was no dedicated survey by the Labour department to identify child labourers in the last 1 decade, which is why rescue and rehabilitation efforts are undertaken in a piecemeal manner, child rights activists allege.The last survey carried out by the State govt to identify child labourers in Odisha, following a directive by the Supreme Court, was in 1996, and 2.15 lakh child labourers were identified then.The Ministry of Labour and Employment operates PENCIL (Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour) for online reporting of cases of child labour. Under this, only 135 complaints of child labour were filed from Odisha from 2017 till date on the platform. Of these, 97 complaints were closed, but no action was taken in 37 cases. Only in 1 case, a police complaint was filed.However, in the same period, over 3,000 children were rescued and and mainstreamed under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Under NCLP, which was implemented in Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Koraput, and Sundargarh, 3,384 child labourers were rescued till date. Of them, 2,589 were enrolled in NCLP schools, which are special training centres for the rehabilitation of children rescued from hazardous occupations by providing bridge education and vocational training. Of these children, 2,568 were mainstreamed.Child rights activist Benudhar Senapati said not all cases of child labour reach the police, which is why such rescue operations end up only in fines and do not act as a deterrent against employing children.On Tuesday, Labour minister Ganesh Ram SinghKhuntia, while replying to a query on steps being taken to rescue and rehabilitate child labourers in Rayagada by MLA Satyajeet Gomango, said 124 inspections were carried out in the district since 2024 and, till date, 13 child labourers were rescued. However, only 3 prosecutions were filed in these cases. He earlier informed the Assembly that 101 child labourers were rescued between 2022 and 2025 and 116 cases were registered against their employers.He said the govt is implementing a State Action Plan for the elimination of child labour, involving several departments to conduct inspections, rescue operations, and awareness campaigns. MSID:: 128753119 413 |
