February 16, 2004
The Government of India, in cooperation with the US Department of Labor and the International Labour Organization (ILO) today launched a US$ 40 million programme aimed at eliminating child labour that targets directly some 80,000 children in ten hazardous industries. This is the largest child labour programme ever undertaken by the ILO at the country level.
Indian Minister of Labour, Dr. Sahib Singh Varma, US Deputy Under-Secretary of Labor, Arnold Levine, and ILO Executive Director, Kari Tapiola, participated in the joint launch event of the programme that will seek "the prevention and elimination of hazardous child labour by enhancing the human, social and physical capacity of target communities".
The programme is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and the Government of India which are providing equal amounts of the total cost of the plan. The ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) will be the executing agency. The project for the elimination of child labour in selected hazardous sectors is a collaborative effort to provide programme support in a co-ordinated manner to on-going efforts undertaken by the Government of India towards a progressively child labour free country.
During a meeting with ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in January, government officials confirmed their resolve to eliminate child labour and announced that India's National Child Labour Project coverage was to be extended from 100 districts to 250 districts. "Child labour is not inevitable", Mr. Somavia said. "We know there is no simple solution. However strategies have to reflect national specificities and be backed by political will. We must remain fixed on the goal of 'work for parents, education for children, opportunities for young people'."
The new project against child labour in selected hazardous sectors is one of the biggest initiatives against child labour to be undertaken in India, a country with an estimated 11.2 million working children, according to official government estimates. The project targets directly 80,000 children below 18 years of age working in hazardous industries such as manufacturing fireworks, beedi cigarettes, footwear, locks, matches, bricks, silk, glassware. Activities will be carried out during the next three years in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states.
The immediate objectives include the identification of children working in selected hazardous occupations in selected zones; withdrawal of children from hazardous work and providing them with transitional and prevocational education and social support to prevent relapse; economic security for the families who withdraw their children from hazardous work; monitoring and tracking of children who have been released from hazardous work; and strengthening of institutional capacity at national, state, district and local level to combat child labour.
The visit of USDOL Deputy Under-Secretary Levine is part of a visit to South Asia that also included Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. USDOL is the largest single donor of ILO technical cooperation projects in South Asia. Mr. Levine's visit has also provided an opportunity to review efforts to combat child labour, deal with HIV/AIDS in the workplace and promote core labour standards and decent work in the region.
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