Post News Network
Rayagada, April 14: The administration has so far failed in ending the child labour system in Rayagada district.
Though, it has taken action against some employers for engaging children as labourers in last few years, it has not been able to completely stop this system.
Many employers prefer to engage children as labourers as they take less money as wages than adult persons. A child labourer gets `20 to 30 per day while an adult person gets `150 to 200 per day.
Therefore, contractors and owners of many brick-kilns, hotels and shops are engaging children as labourers.
As people residing in remote pockets of this tribal dominated district are very poor, they send their children to work at different places. In rural areas of the district, child labourers are being engaged in large scale in brick-kilns. Child labourers are also being engaged in construction work. They are are not only being hired in remote areas but also in district headquarters. Recently, two minor boys were spotted painting the walls of Ashok Kalyan Mandap run by Rayagada Municipality.
Reacting on the issue, the executive officer of Rayagada Municipality, Suryamani Pattajoshi said that he was not aware of the incident. He added that he would ask the contractor who had engaged these children as labourers not to do so in future.
Similarly, an eight-year-old boy was found working in a hotel at main market in Rayagada town. But, the hotel owner refused to give any comment on the issue.
These incidents clearly indicate that the government agencies have failed in ending such system in the urban areas. There are several agencies formed by the government to rescue such children and rehabilitate them. But they don’t have proper network to gather information about those employers who are engaging child labourers.
The president of Adivasi Mahasangh Aappulswami Kadraka, advocate Labanya Mohan Pattanaik and several other eminent persons have also blamed the administration for not showing seriousness to stop such system.
The district labour officer Narendra Kumar Raika, meanwhile, refuted the claim that child labourers are being hired in large scale in the district. He added that his department would take stern action against those who have engaged child labourers if it gets any such complaint.
The deputy labour commissioner Kumud Ranjan Das, on the other hand, said that the department is making efforts to create more awareness among the people to stop child labourer system.