As part of its renewed efforts to tackle child labour, Telangana would soon frame its own rules for implementation of the recently amended Child Labour Act, representatives of the Labour Department informed on Saturday.
Highlighting the need for greater public awareness about amendments made to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation), Act, 2016, officials said Telangana is working on drafting rules for the Act, borrowing most of it from the Centre. The Centre’s rules to implement the amended Act were notified earlier this year.
“Suggestions are now being sought on new set of rules. For instance, we have learnt that the definition of a family enterprise must be clearer to avoid ambiguity in implementation,” said Varsha Bhargavi, coordinator for the State Resource Centre for Elimination of Child Labour. The State Resource Centre (SRC), set up in March, is one of Telangana’s initiatives to curb child labour in the State.
Support role
Apart from working to create awareness, the centre will also supplement the work of the State-level Monitoring Committee, chaired by senior government officials from several departments.
Speaking during an awareness programme for media on Saturday, Joint Commissioner of Labour (TCs), E. Gangadhar, informed that one of SRC’s priorities is to identify adolescents aged 15-18 years employed in hazardous occupations. The amended Act has listed occupations deemed hazardous for employing adolescents.
Map occupations
“It would indeed be useful to map hazardous industries,” Mr. Gangadhar said in response to a suggestion from the gathering. “After achieving a tolerance level in prevalence of child labour we now seek to eliminate it,” he added. The State has adequate facilities to rehabilitate rescued children, and stressed on implementation of the RTE Act in conjunction with the amended Child Labour Act. For that, Mr. Gangadhar added that children rescued are being enrolled with Aadhaar to keep track of their progress. One of the main concerns raised by child rights activists was that rescued children often drop out of schools and return to employment.
