Since precautions need to be taken to protect children from COVID-19 third wave, Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) – Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, has urged the State government to ensure children receive nutritious food along with boiled egg and spinach through the anganwadi centres in the State.
A release from its State coordinator R. Karuppasamy said that due to COVID-19 pandemic, schools were closed for the past one-and-a-half years and children remained indoors causing stress. The pandemic has resulted in dropouts, particularly girls, and children were unable to get nutritious food which is a major concern, he added.
A survey by CACL in 24 districts among 900 government school children revealed that 231 children were engaged in work before the pandemic that increased to 650 now. “The percentage of child workers has increased from 28 to 79 now”, he said and added that they were affected due to various reasons. Since no steps were taken to alleviate their poverty, abolition of child labour did not yield any results, he added.
Mr. Karuppasamy urged the government to conduct a rapid survey across the State to study the number of child labourers and ensure their parents are vaccinated. Also, they should be given face masks, sanitisers and also ensure they continue their online classes.
