Jaipur: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has detected large-scale child labour at the brick kilns in Bhilwara district and expressed surprised over the district administration’s indifference to the issue. Of the 300 brick kilns functioning in Bhilwara, only 45 are registered with the district administration. The NCPCR Member and Chairman of the Working Committee on Child Labour in Mines, Dr. Yogesh Dube, visited Bhilwara on February 6 and 7, 2013, for investigation of child labour following reports received from NGOs and media. He said here after returning from Bhilwara that he had found shocking figures of children working in brick kilns. Hundreds of children belonging to the families of 35,000 to 40,000 labourers at the brick kilns are involved in the work along with the elders in the families. Most of these labourers have come to Bhilwara during the season of work from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and a large number of them are tribals.
Dr. Dube said several brick kilns were functioning on the agricultural land and were also causing air pollution. There is no arrangement for registration of the labourers hired and no provisions for social security for the thousands of workers even through the rules governing inter-state relations. Dr. Dube held a meeting with the Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and other NGOs on child labour and children in distress and later met the Bhilwara Collector, Mr. Onkar Singh, and other senior officers of the departments concerned, such as labour, police, women and child development, health, home, education, tribal development, etc., to discuss the action for eradication of child labour. The preliminary estimates have revealed that about 4,300 children are working as bonded labourers in the brick kiln industry in Bhilwara. He asked the administration to submit a report on the issue to the NCPCR within 14 days and instructed the Laobur Department to take urgent action and conduct raids to rescue child labourers.
In his meeting with the administrative officers, Dr. Dube suggested hospital for migrants, cluster schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and hostels for children of pastoral communities be opened to ensure rehabilitation of the rescued child labourers. The Labour Department must carry out a fresh mapping of child labour and take stringent action to stop violation of laws. Besides, action should be taken to strengthen Primary Health Centres, Anganwadi Centres, Child Welfare Committees and Integrated Child Development Schemes and the closed schools under the National Child Labour Project must be reopened, said Dr. Dube. Children should also be provided with the vaccination and pulse polio drops facilities. Dr. Dube noted that that a Child Labour Survey launched by the State Government, in which 188 inspections were carried out in one year, had only found 30 to 35 child labourers. This was an eyewash and the survey had revealed negligence of the government authorities towards their responsibility, he said.
The NCPCR gave two months to the State Government for framing a comprehensive training manual for child labour-free State and asked it to organize workshops to generate awareness at the district level. The campaign should be run in a camp mode, said Dr. Dube. The NCPCR also asked the State Government to formulate an action plan for complete abolition of child labour and implementation of the right to education for every child.
In Jaipur on February 7 morning, Dr. Dube met the Principal Secretary, Labour, to discuss about child labour involved in BT Cotton, their rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation, steps taken by the State Government after the notification increasing of age of children to 18 years, child labour involved in soap & cobble stone mining in various parts of Rajasthan, illegal brick kilns in the State, follow up of child labour mapping, review of implementation of NCPCR’s recommendations related to child labour, with specific reference to implementation of orders in M.C. Mehta case, and conducting of a regional workshop in Udaipur on elimination of child labour. In his meeting with the Chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Mrs. Kalra, Dr. Dube discussed the measures for improving the child labour scenario. Mr. Kalyan Singh Kothari, Member of the NCPCR’s Working Committee on Child Labour in Mines and Secretary, Lok Samvad Sansthan, also met Dr. Dube.
Mr. Kothari provided details about the children migrating or being trafficked from southern Rajasthan to the BT cotton fields in Gujarat and suggested that a series of sensitization workshops in the tribal region of Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur could help in resolving the problem. He also stressed that the health care and educational rights of children in the tribal belt of the state must be protected.
Kalyan Singh Kothari
Media Consultant
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