By IANS,
New Delhi : The new United Progressive Alliance government must introduce a bill to prohibit all forms of child labour in the country within the first 100 days, a child rights organisation said Friday.
“In its plan of action for the first 100 days in power, the Ministry of Labour and Employment must bring in a new bill to prohibit all forms of child labour upto 14 years,” said Vakil Miller, of NGO Save the Children.
The appeal came on the occasion of International Labour Organisation Day Friday. India has over 12 million children involved in labour, according to government figures.
According to Miller, the government needs to revamp the national child labour project which has not been effective in the past years in removing children from the labour force and rehabilitating them.
“The new government must make investments required to end the scourge of child labour.
“Much before the government sets out to restructure the education system, it is critical for it to tackle the question of child labour as India is one of the countries with highest figures in child labour,” added Miller.
There are 13 million children below 14 years engaged in child labour across the world.