National Child Labour Policy

 National child labor policy was announced in August 1987 it is more essential to concentrate
in those sectors or establishments where there is a greater likelihood of exploitation by forcing
the children to work in hazardous occupation and processes and by making them work for long
hours of work at low wages and the conditions like bonded labor.

 Though the long term goal is to abolish or eliminate child labour, the policy provides for-

 Prohibition
 Rehabilitation
 Prevention
The main thrust of the policy is on:

1) legislative action Plan

2) General development programme
 Education
 Health
 Nutrition
3) Project based action plan in areas of high concentration of child labour e.g. Garwah in Bihar,
thane in Maharashtra
The activities taken up in this project include:
 Non formal education
 adult education
 special schools
 raising public awareness
 stepping up of enforcement of laws relating to child labour
 income and Employment generation
 surveys and evaluation
Special schools under the national child labour project special schools are meant for providing:
 non formal education
 vocational training
 supplementary nutrition
 Healthcare etc.

National child labour policy includes:

 preventive measures
 specific measures and
 curative measures.

1) Preventive measures

 Awareness generation and sensitization programs against child labour

 the program to be conducted regularly by the voluntary agencies.
2) specific measures
offering family incentives to withdraw children from work and encourage them to put children to
school

3) Curative measures
 detection of child labour
 releasing child workers from work environment
 turning the child worker from the work environment to school education and / or non formal
education
 vocational training for released child workers

Since 1994 a program for withdrawing child labour from hazardous occupation and rehabilitating
them through special schools is being implemented
 National Child Labour Policy

In September 1994, the national authority for the elimination of child labour has been set up to:

 lay down policies and programme for elimination of child labour particularly in hazardous
employment

 to monitor the progress of implementation of programs project and schemes

 to co-ordinate implementation of child labour related projects under various Ministries to

ensure convergence of services

 programme of action to release 2 million children in hazardous work by 2002

Laws relating to child labour

Those which are not exclusively made for child workers yet contain Provisions specially
for child workers:
 Factories Act 1948
 Mines Act 1952
 Plantation Labour Act 1951
 Merchant And Shipping Act 1958
 Motor Transport Workers Act 1961
 Beedi And Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act 1966

Those which are significant for child labour

 Minimum Wages Act 1948
 Shops and Establishment Act In Various State
 The Apprentices Act 1961
 The Atomic Energy Act 1962
Role of different agencies in combating child labour

 Efforts of Ministry of Labour, Government of India

 Awareness Generation
 special schools
 grant-in-aid schemes: since 1981-82 the ministry has been financing voluntary
organizations by way of grant-in-aid for taking of action oriented project for the benefit of
child labor and women workers.

 Efforts of Trade union

 International agencies/ organization

The international organizations and agencies including ILO, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP have
taken the problem of child labor and women workers as an open Challenge and have initiated
various strategies to combat the problem
 Role of ILO
International labor organization attempts to influence the national policies of the member states
through Conventions and recommendations.

 International Programme for Elimination of Child Labor

This action program was initiated in September 1990 and the program document was finalized in
December 1991.

Aims objectives of the programs

 Progressive elimination of child labor; reducing child Labour in priority areas
 protection of working children
 elimination of child labor through Community participation strategy

 Efforts of UNICEF
Programme for sensitizing various groups of people to Workshops, seminars, media campaign,
research, documentation based project.