ILO TOLD INDIA FOLLOWING A PROACTIVE POLICY
TO ELMINATE CHILD LABOUR : ALLOCATION DURING CURRENT PLAN PROPOSED
TO BE US$ 100 MILLION
India has
told the International Labour Organisation, ILO, that it is following
a pro-active policy to eliminate child labour. Addressing the
Plenary Session of the International Labour Conference of the
ILO in Geneva today, the Leader of the Indian delegation to the
Conference and the Minister of state for Labour and Employment
Shri Muni Lall said New Delhi is of the view that child labour
is closely inter-linked with poverty and illiteracy and is addressing
both these issues with urgency. He said several poverty eradication
programmes are in operation which have over the years considerably
reduced poverty while education for all children upto the age
of 14 years has been made a fundamental right this year. Shri
Muni Lall said that the National Child Labour Projects in one
hundred districts have so far rehabilitated more than 150,000
child labourers and brought them into the mainstream of formal
education system. He informed the ILO that India spent US$ 50
million during the last plan for eradication of child labour and
the allocation is proposed to be doubled for the current Plan.
Referring
to Decent Work and Informal Economy, another major issue on ILC’s
agenda, Shri Muni Lall said the subject matter should not be seen
merely as a rights issue. He said that foremost need of the job
seekers is employment, so we follow the ‘Job-first’ approach as
Decent work can follow later. He said that globalisation and liberalisation
would lead to increase in casualisation of workers in developing
countries, thus, adding to the already large workforce in the
informal sector. Citing the case of India where 90 percent of
workers belong to informal sector, Shri Muni Lall said that we
need to look at the strengths of the informal sector and the prevailing
social and economic conditions. He said that developing countries
have a huge task at hand of upgrading social infrastructure and
skill upgradation of workers and look forward to developed countries
for assistance in this regard.
