Krishna District Collector Peeyush Kumar on Thursday launched a signature campaign against using children in begging, at Benz circle. Women and Child Welfare Department, Labour Department and the National Child Labour Project, along with a few service organisations, launched the campaign to create awareness among the public about child rights and welfare.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Peeyush Kumar underscored the need for eradicating child labour system and ensuring rights of all the children. He said bridge schools were on the job of providing education to street children and children rescued from work.
Special drive
“Special drives are being conducted by all government departments with the help of service organisations for rescuing children engaged in work,” he said.
Expressing concern over the practice of using children for begging, Mr. Peeyush Kumar said special drives were launched against beggars too and stringent action would be initiated against those whose children and infants were initiated into begging.
As the launch of signature campaign was delayed by an hour, many street children, representatives of service organisations, officials of various government departments and representatives of the print and electronic media waited under the scorching sun for the arrival of the Collector. A few children were engaged in holding the banner with slogans inscribed on it about the importance of child rights. The children stood on the traffic island for about an hour and displayed the banner.
Project Directors K. Suhasini Devi (Women and Child Welfare Department), K. Sivasankara Rao (NCLP), District Youth Welfare Officer Velaga Joshi and others were present.
