Mangaluru: Adopting the slogan of the year of International Labour Organisation (ILO) which is “End Child Labour in supply chains, it’s everyone’s business”, Dakshina Kannada district administration, Zilla Panchayat in association with various other departments observed ‘World Day against Child Labour’ here on Sunday, June 12.

          Deputy Commissioner, A B Ibrahim speaking on the occasion of ‘World Day against Child Labour’

District in-charge minister, B Ramanath Rai, after lighting the lamp to inaugurate the function said, “It is the responsibility of parents and the society to provide proper education to their children. Use of child labour, is an issue in the developing and economically poor countries. It is everybody’s responsibility, to remove such social evils from the society, before they become a menace. The society and various organisations, should join hands to eradicate child labour and educate people on this. Using child labour in hotels, bakeries and for domestic purposes and consuming food prepared by them is like consuming poison.”

“The District administration has taken many initiatives to make Dakshina Kannada free from child labour. The most important initiative was to give children good education. That would eradicate the child labourers in Dakshina Kannada, compared to other parts of the State. Prizes have been announced by the State government for the district, in this regard,” he added.

Deputy Commissioner, A B Ibrahim stated that the district administration will eradicate all types of child labour from the district by September 2016.

Children belonging to a rehabilitation centre were given school bags on this occasion. Two children from the rehabilitation centre expressed their plight as child labourers and how the centre headed by Hilda Rayappan came to their rescue and provided good education and a decent livelihood.

Earlier speaking on the occasion, Nagesh, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Mangaluru Division said that, as per ILO, there are 215 million child labourers out of which 120 million are employed in hazardous occupation. In India, 15 million child labourers are involved in similar occupation such as domestic, construction, rag picking, bakeries and also in trade of petty items.

Since the task of freeing the district from child labour has been taken up, nearly 10 departments, including the police were a part of an awareness workshop with Nagesh as the resource person. For effective implementation of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, all inspectors and additional inspectors, on information or a complaint about child labour, will go in groups together to the spot and after verification, spot report will be made. The statement of the child labour and the employer will also be taken. Based on this the chargesheet will be filed before the Judicial JMFC. In case of age to be assessed, the child labour will be produced before the assistant surgeon or a medical officer of any government hospital. If proved guilty, the employer will be levied a penalty by way of maximum fine upto Rs.20,000 with 3 months to one year of imprisonment.

According to the Assistant Labour Commissioner for 2015-16, one case was booked at Gurupura and the employer is likely to receive punishment, since the child’s age was confirmed to be less than 14 years. In article 24 of the Indian Constitution, ‘no child below 14 years is permitted to work in factories and mines’. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 also prohibits use of Children as labourers who are less than 14 years of age.

International Definition

According to the ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, child labor is the enslavement (i.e., sale, trafficking, debt bondage, serfdom, compulsory labor) of anyone under the age of 18. The definition includes the use of children in armed conflict, prostitution and illegal activities such as drug trafficking. Lastly, any work deemed to be harmful to the health, safety or morals of a child is considered to be child labor.

Supply needs and industry demand for cheap, unskilled labour are some of the leading causes of child labour. Specifically, production processes that require certain physical attributes, such as small stature and agility, lead to the employment of children. In addition, price pressures encourage suppliers – especially those at the top of the supply chain – to find the cheapest labour. Poverty leads these children to accept the job, or their parents ask them to work to supplement the family income. These supply and demand factors are reinforced by systemic, structural issues such as lack of access to education, inadequate employment opportunities for the educated, corruption and social stratification.

MLC Ivan D’Souza; Dakshina Kannada ZP president, Meenakshi Shanthigodu; ZP member, Tumbay Chandraprakash Shetty; Kripa Amar Alva, the president of KSCRC; Mallanna Gowda Patil, the senior civil court Judge; ZP CEO PI Shrividhya, DCP Shantharaju, Addditional SP Vedamurthy, Hilda Rayappan of Snehalaya, Renni D’Souza and others were present.