NATIONAL
CHILD LABOUR PROJECT, SAMBALPUR
“I
am the child.
All
the world waits for my coming.
All
the earth watches with interest to see what I shall become.
Civilisation
hangs in the balance.
For
what I am, the world of tomorrow will be.
I
am the child.
You
hold in your hand my destiny.
You
determine, largely, whether I shall succeed or fail,
Give
me, I pray you, these things that make for happiness.
Train
me, I beg you, that I may be a blessing to the world.”
By
Mamie Gene Cole.
Elimination
of child labour is an article of faith and commitment on the part of Government
in the Ministry of Labour. Elimination of child labour, however, can not be
viewed as the sole concern of Ministry of Labour; it has to be viewed as the
concern of the whole nation. As a matter of fact, it has to be viewed as a
global concern. As the population increases at an alarming rate, as more and
more children are born year after year and as more and more children enter the
world of work at their school going age (5-14), this becomes a matter of grave
anxiety and concern to the policy formulators and the framers of law at the
national level.
Government
has been alive to the need for release of these children from hazardous work and
for their rehabilitation – physical, emotional & economic through
education with a project approach. With this end and view the National Policy on
Child Labour was formulated in August, 1987 and the National Child Labour
Projects were conceptualized & launched around the same time. These
initiatives which were rather on a small scale in the beginning were
subsequently reinforced and strengthened by the announcement made by the former
Prime Minister on 15.08.1994 for the total liberation of all children (5-14) who
are employed in hazardous work and for their physical and emotional
rehabilitation through a composite package called National Child Labour Projects
which are to be administered by the District Child Labour Project Society
registered as such under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Hon’ble
Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark Judgement on 10.12.1996 in Civil
Writ Petition No. 465/86 – M.C. Mehta Vs State of Tamilnadu & Others
through which the apex Court has issued a number of directions to the Central
Government as well as the State Governments. The Judgement itself has created a
new urgency and seriousness of concern in regard to elimination of child labour
by the Central Government, State Governments, NGOs and all others who are
concerned about this social malady.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
1. ARTICLE – 24: PROHIBITION OF EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN FACTORIES
ETC.
No
child below the age fourteen years shall be employed in work in any factory or
mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
2. ARTICLE – 39: THE STATE SHALL, IN PARTICULAR, DIRECT ITS POLICY
TOWARDS SECURING:-
(e) that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender
age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic
necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength.
(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a
healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and
youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material
abandonment.
3. ARTICLE – 45: PROVISION FOR FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION FOR
CHILDREN.
The
State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory education for all
children until they complete the age of fourteen years.
With
a view to fulfilling the constitutional mandate, a major programme was launced
on 15th August, 1994 for withdrawing children working in hazardous
occupations and rehabilitating them through Special Schools. As a follow up, a
series of steps have been taken by the Government. A high powered body, the
National Authority for the Elimination of Child Labour (NAECL) was constituted
on 26th September, 1994 under the Chairmanship of Labour Minister
with a view to formulating policies and programmes for elimination of child
labour, monitor the progress of implementation of programmes, projects and
schemes for elimination of child labour and to coordinate the implementation of
child labour related projects of the various sister Ministries of the Government
of India (to ensure convergence of services for the benefit of the families of
child labour). To give effect to this announcement, 64 area based projects were
sanctioned, (in addition to 12 continuing projects) under the existing scheme of
NCLP and Sambalpur district is one among them.
The
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 seeks to prohibit employment
of children below the age of 14 years in 7 occupations and 18 processes listed
in the Schedule to the Act and regulate the working conditions of children in
other employments. Through a Notification dated 26.05.1993, the working
conditions of children have been regulated in all employments which are not
prohibited under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
The
important directives of the Apex Court in this matter are:-
Ř
Survey for identification of working children;
Ř
Withdrawal of children working in hazardous industries and
ensuring their education in appropriate institutions;
Ř Contribution @20,000/- per child to be paid by the offending
employees of children to a welfare fund to be established for this purpose;
Ř Employment to one adult member of the family of the child so
withdrawn from work and if that is not possible, a contribution of Rs.5,000/- to
the welfare fund to be made by the State Government;
Ř Financial assistance to the families of the children so withdrawn
to be paid out of the interest earnings on the corpus of Rs.20,000/25,000
deposited in the welfare fund as long as the child is actually sent to school;
Ř Regulating hours of work for children working in non-hazardous
occupations so that their working hours do not exceed six hours per day and
education for atleast two hours is ensured. The entire expenditure on education
is to be borne by the concerned employer.
SCHEME
FOR NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR PROJECT.
The
National Child Labour Policy was approved by the Cabinet (Central Ministry) on
the 14th August 1987 during the Seventh Plan period. Under the
policy, a project based Plan of Action was envisaged. Accordingly, nine projects
were started in areas of child labour concentration.
National Child Labour Policy – 1987.
The
National Child Labour Policy was formulated with the basic objective of suitably
rehabilitating the children withdrawn from employment and to reduce the
incidence of child labour in areas where there is a known concentration of child
labour. The policy consists of three main ingredients:
(a)
Lagal
Action Plan – Emphasis will be laid on strict and effective enforcement of
legal provisions relating to child labour under various labour laws.
(b)
Focusing
of general development programmes – Utilisation of various on-going
development programmes of other Ministries/Departments for the benefit of child
labour wherever possible.
(c)
Project
based plan of Action-Launching of projects for the welfare of working children
in areas of high concentration of child labour.
Institutional Framework for
Monitoring and Implementation:
A
project level society is required to be constituted for each project to
supervise the programme with the District Magistrate/Collector of the concerned
district as its Chairman and other members comprising representatives of
Departments concerned with programmes of non-formal education, vocational
training, health etc. and suitable voluntary organization as required. The
execution of the project is entrusted to a Project Director who is assisted by
field officers or social workers and other support staff. The society is a
registered body and has a distinct legal status. The other staff including
teachers are engaged either by the voluntary agency or by the Project Society.
Project Proposal.
On
the basis of the findings in the preliminary survey, the detailed project
proposals may be drawn up and forwarded by the State Government indicating
clearly the programme activities and time targets as relatable to the main
objective of elimination/reduction of child labour in the area. Linking up and
integration with the existing development programmes would require to be
specifically mentioned. Each Child Labour Project Society is proposed to be
funded specifically for raising of public awareness as indicated in Annex.IV.
The staff requirement and financial implications of all the programme activities
would need to be clearly spelt out. The agencies proposed to be involved in the
implementation of programmes alongwith their specific responsibilities will have
to be identified.
Enforcement
In
view of the fact that the very incidence of child labour in prohibited
employments implies certain laxity and substancial ineffectiveness of the
legislative provisions for the protection of child labour in various laws,
stepping up of their enforcement would be an essential component of the project
activities. Special responsibility is envisaged to be cast on the labour
enfocement staff available in the project area. In case additional complement of
enforcement staff is required to be included in the project, it would be
possible to sanction it, for a limited period and with specifically laid down
targets.
Project
Implementation
The
entire project is required to be implemented through a registered society. The
project society is required to be constituted under the Chairmanship of the
administrative head of the area who may be either the Collector of the district
or, in case the project is spread over more than one district, the Divisional
Commissioner or other appropriate authority. Members of the society may be drawn
from concerned Government departments and representatives of Panchayati Raj
Institutions and NGOs etc.
Operationalisation of Child Labour Projects.
In
terms of operationalisation of the projects, the main objective of the National
Child Labour Project is to withdraw children working in hazardous occupations
and rehabilitate them through their education in the special schools, where they
are provided non formal education, vocational training, stipend, nutrition, etc.
The children in the special schools are taught through a non-formal mode with a
condensed syllabus for a maximum period of 3 years. After 3 years of special
school education, the children are expected to reach a level of 5th
standard. The children are also imparted age appropriate craft and
pre-vocational training. After completion of the special school education
children are expected to join formal stream of education in 6th
standard. Some children are also capable of being mainstreamed before the
completion of 3 years of special school education. Since this is cost effective,
this process of mainstreaming should be encouraged. Children of special schools
who cannot be mainstreamed to formal stream of education should be encouraged to
take up vocation of their choice after completion of their special school
education. The target group comprises of children working in hazardous
occupations who have not completed 14 years of age.
ADMINISTRATIVE SET
UP
The
child labour project has a specific time frame and it will not continue
indefinitely. The teaching volunteers for the special schools and other staff of
the project society is engaged with the clear understanding/agreement that they
will be paid a consolidated honorarium for their services which are more or less
voluntary in nature. No regular scale of pay should be prescribed for any of the
project staff.
STIPEND
Stipend
is not paid in cash to the students or the parents. Instead, an account has been
opened in the post office/commercial or cooperative bank in the name of the
student and his guardian. The stipend is deposited in the account every month.
The District Collector and Project Director ensure speedy opening of accounts in
the village post office.
CONVERGENCE
OF SERVICES
Poverty
being the most important contributing factor of child labour, it is necessary to
effect convergence of the various development programmes under implementation at
the district level for the benefit of the working children and their parents.
The basic idea underlying convergence is pooling of resources from a variety of
sources and integrating them imaginatively and skillfully to achieve the desired
results. Convergence becomes more meaningful in a situation of scarcity of
resources, large magnitude of the problem and limited time frame. It is well
known that while Ministry of Labour is concerned with the problem of working
children, but there are departments like, Women and Child Development,
Education, Rural areas and Employment, Urban Poverty Alleviation, Health and
Family Welfare, Welfare, etc. which have separate programmes for promoting well
being of children. The magnitude of the problem of child labour being large,
there is scope for pooling resources from other sources like the
Ministries/Departments indicated above and dovetailing them with the resources
available with Ministry Of Labour to produce optimal results.
Ministry
of Rural Development, Government of India has already issued circulars for
coverage of the parents of children under the existing poverty alleviation and
employment generation schemes. The Project Directors should continuously monitor
the coverage of the parents of the children under various poverty alleviation
and employment generation schemes. This issue should be regularly discussed in
the meeting for review of the progress in the implementation of the project.
ROLE OF STATE
GOVERNMENT
Child
labour is a subject on which both the Central Government and State Governments
have joint responsibility. Child Labour Elimination Programme is, therefore, a
national programme which must be supported both by Central and the State
Governments by enlisting the involvement of different Ministries/Departments at
the Central and the State Government level as also Non-Governmental
Organisations. For facilitating the overall monitoring, supervision and
coordination, Ministry of Labour at the Government of India and the Departments
of Labour (or any other designated department) at the level of State Government
will be the nodal agencies.
EFFECTIVE
OPERATIONALISATION OF CHILD LABOUR PROJECTS.
Timely and effective operationalisation of the Child Labour Projects is the
ultimate test of success of the project. Timeless in responding to various needs
of the project, strict adherence to the time schedule and calendar of activities
in respect of survey, awareness generation and commissioning of special schools,
rigorous monitoring of the pace and progress of implementation of various
components and sub components of the project, instant application of correctives
to remove deficiencies and infirmities and evaluation (both content, process and
summative) of the outcome of the project and application of the findings of the
evaluation as a tool of correction for qualitative change can help in achieving
the desired objective of the project.
ROLE
OF N.G.Os.
NGOs
are not contractors of Government; they are not competitors of Government nor
are they substitutes of Government action. We solicit the involvement,
cooperation and support of NGOs as Government does not have the outreach to
every place and as Government cannot assume everything on its shoulders in terms
of social action. In regard to involvement of NGOs in any particular area of
work, it would depend on their attitude, approach, professional experience and
expertise etc. We, therefore, need specific NGOs for specific area(s) of social
action depending on their traits, attributes and characteristics. In other
words, a highly selective approach is what is needed and not an approach which
will open flood gates of social action to NGOs regardless of their sincere
desire, interest and willingness to work for elimination of child labour.
With
the above salient features and the programme principles, the National Child
Labour Project was started functioning in Sambalpur District. The status of this
project as on the date is as follows:
| 1. |
Name of the
Project registered |
“
Society for Welfare of Child Labour
” , Sambalpur |
| 2. |
Registration
No. & Date |
|
| 3. |
Date of
commencement of the Project |
29.4.1994 |
| 4. |
No. of
learning centers (Special Schools
) initially started from 29.4.2004 ( with 75 student
strength in each center under the direct control of the Project ) |
| |
In Jharsuguda
Block
( Jharsuguda Dist )
|
10 |
| |
Rengali
Block
( Sambalpur Dist.)
|
10 |
| |
Maneswar
Block
( Sambalpur Dist)
|
10 |
| |
TOTAL |
30 |
| 5. |
Total No. of
students enrolled |
2250 |
| Note-1. |
Later vide D.O. No.
S-27020/37/ 93- CL dated 9.12.1999
10 schools transferred to
the administrative control of the Collector, Jharsuguda on 1.2.2000 and
the funds transferred on 24.2.2000 |
| Note-2. |
Rest 20 schools
strengthened with 50 students
each by the
Ministry of Labourand thus increased to
30 schools
& started functioning in Sambalpur
District. |
| 6 |
Area Rengali Project extended to Jujumura Block:
|
w.e.f. 2.10.1996
|
| |
|
|
| Note |
1 |
The Govt. of India
in Labour Ministry’s D.O. No. S-27020/37/93/CL dated 9.12.1999 decided
to strengthen each school with 5o students and thus the above 20 schools under
Jujumura Block have been increased to 40 schools with effect from 1.1.2000 to
accommodate all the 2000 students earlier enrolled.
|
| 2. |
After the above redistribution in the Rengali and Jujumura Projects,
there were total 70 Schools in three Blocks
( Rengali – 30 + Jujumura – 40 ).
|
| 3. |
Since the above three Blocks namely,
Rengali, Maneswar and Jujumra are
situated wide apart, for the
convenience of the administration, in
the 9th Executive Body meeting of the Project Society held on
24.8.1998 it was decided to shift the Hdqrs. of the Project office at
Sambalpur, the center place of the above three Blocks.
|
| |
The
above 70 schools were relocated with a coverage in all the 9 Blocks after
completion of three years in a particular location as detailed below.
|
| Total No. Schools
|
70 |
| Total No. students |
3,491 ( M : 1435
FM: 2056) |
| No. of Schools managed by
the Project |
19 |
| No.
of schools managed by NGO |
51 |
|
There
after another 12 schools
were opened basing on the report
of the State Labour Institute making the total no. of schools 61 as
follows. |
|
|
| 7. |
Benefit to the students :
|
|
| 8. |
Awareness
generation activities :
|
|
| 9. |
Achievement of the Project : |
|
From
the inception ( 1994 ) 20893 child labour children have been enrolled in
the Special schools opened for them and out of them, 5300 have been
brought to the mainstreram. The year-wise mainstreaming is indicated
below.
|
|
|
| 9. |
Receipt
& expenditure ( Grant in Aid )
|
|
|
| 10. |
Position of Officers & Staff as 0n 25.4.06 :
|
|
|
(i)
|
Project Director
|
1
|
Shri Joy George,
OAS(I), Jr.(Retd.)
w.e.f. 21.2.05
|
|
(ii)
|
Field Officers
|
2
|
|
|
(iii)
|
Accountant-cum-Clerk
|
1
|
|
|
(iv)
|
Steno-cum-Clerk
|
1
|
|
|
(v)
|
Driver
|
1
|
|
|
(vi)
|
Office Peon
|
1
|
|
|
(vii)
|
Clerk-cum-Accountant in the
Schools
|
22
|
|
|
(viii)
|
Education Volunteers in the
schools
|
44
|
|
|
(ix)
|
Vocational Volunteer
|
22
|
|
|
(x)
|
Peon-cum-Cooks
|
22
|
|
|
