Bhubaneswar: With widespread failure of enforcement mechanism and apathy of officials, Orissa continues to be among the foremost states where 3.78 lakh children in 5-14 age group work as labourers.
The lackadaisical attitude of the administration has encouraged engagement of children in hotels, restaurants, packaging industries and household works. Interestingly, the state officials have no data about the number of children working as bonded labours. The number of working children identified through a Labour Department survey showed Orissa had 2,15,222 child labourers. A School and Mass Education survey done in 2007-08 indicated that there are 2.70 lakh out of school children in Orissa.
The state labour department had conducted the survey at the behest of Supreme Court in MC Mehta vs Tamil Nadu & others case (1986) directing states to implement the Child Labour Prohibition Act, 1986 and identify the children below 14 years who were being exploited for economic reasons. The official website of Orissa labour department displays the child labour statistics of 1997 till this day.
Experts, however, have suggested the need to conduct survey on the issue. “The government has to identify child labourers. Police, Panchayati Raj, Labour and Education department officials should be engaged in the survey before working out strategies for curbing the practice,” said Anuradha Mohanty, a leading child rights activist.
However, top labour department officials who were busy in World Child Labour Day function Monday declined to comment on the efforts made by the department to curb the practice.
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Amendment) Act 2016, had reduced the number of hazardous occupations from 83 to three. But, recently, the Centre released a notification to address these issues. Several activists from state pointed out that this is a gimmick done by BJP-led government to silence the critics on the World Child Labour Day.
According to concerned citizens, unemployment, poverty and drought have led to workers’ migration from western districts Kalahandi, Bolangir, Nuapada and Subarnapur. Poor labourers often go to other states with their children and end up as bondage labours in some brick kilns.
“Although we have laws to protect children, practice of child labour continues in Orissa. The labour has not even done any survey on this after 1997. So, the callous attitude of officials aggravate the situation,” said another child rights activist Bhaskar Pradhan.
“There is a clear-cut instructions from Supreme Court to the National Human Rights Commission empowering the district collectors to rehabilitate and settle bonded labourers. But, our state has failed to enforce the law,” said National Human Rights Commission core group member Manoj Jena.
Jose K Joseph, OP
