By IANS,
New Delhi : A 45-day campaign against child labour by an international rights agency, which started off Friday, demands that the Right to Education Act as well as the child labour law should be amended so that the lives of working children can be impacted positively.
An official of Save the Children, the organisation that started the campaign, said: “The Right to Education Act must make special provisions to bring into regular school all children who are now engaged in child labour.”
“Also, the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986, must be amended to prohibit all forms of child labour in all sectors, including agriculture where 75 percent child labourers under 14 years were engaged,” the official added.
According to the civil society organisations, approximately 40 million kids are engaged in child labour in the country, although official estimates are much less.
“There are close to 13 million children in India under 14 years of age who are at present engaged in child labour, according to the 2001 census. This is an anomaly in a country where education is a constitutionally guaranteed right,” the official said.
“With all of this in mind, we have launched a 45-day campaign against child labour. The campaign will end June 12 which is observed as Child Labour Day by the International Labour Organisation (ILO),” the official added.