With no positive response from GoI

WEDNESDAY, 02 SEPTEMBER 2015, FIRDOUS HASSAN

 NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR PROJECT TO  BE SHELVED IN JK

 Srinagar: The Centre has decided to shelve  its anti- child labour scheme ‘National Child Labour Project (NCLP)’ in Jammu and Kashmir which will expire by the end of month of September this year.
NCLP was launched in 1996 in Jammu and Kashmir to control and curb the menace of growing child labour in the state.
The scheme will expire in September 2015 as the Government of India has not shown any positive response to continue it in valley, officials said.
Deputy Labour Commissioner, Ghulam Rasool told The Kashmir Monitor that the Government of India has communicated the concerned department that the scheme will be shelved permanently from the valley.
“This scheme will end in the month of September. We have received communication from the government of India recently that it will shelve the scheme from here. We hope that it provides the benefits to these children through some other schemes to curb the child labour from the valley,” he said.
Under this scheme the Labour Department was providing a monthly stipend of Rs.150 to the children besides giving them basic education and vocational training.
There are almost six Child Labour special schools in Srinagar in areas like Foreshore road, Kursoo Rajbagh and Habak where scores of children are studying who were earlier recovered from different workplaces.
With the closure of this scheme, these schools are likely to miss the benefits including the monthly stipend and many other incentives that was released by the Centre government.
“If this scheme will be closed naturally the monthly stipend of Rs.150 to these children will be also closed. All the benefits under this scheme will end. In case government launches any other scheme for the children then it won’t be worrisome,” Ghulam Rasool said.
 As per the sources the monthly stipend was provide to those children having more than 70 percent attendance in their respective schools.
Moreover the labour department so far has launched nearly 2000 inspection across the city but the number of children recovered is comparatively less while many underage children are still working at different places.
“We are regularly conducting inspection in the markets and many children who were found working in different places have been admitted in different schools. The department is working to check the children labour in the valley,” Deputy Labour Commissioner said.
Earlier in 2011, a survey conducted by Prof Fayaz Ahmad Nikka has mentioned that JK was having highest number of child labourers in the country with figures around 2.40 lakh in the state.
Experts have attributed backwardness, poverty and lack of education as the main reason behind the increasing child labour.

http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/news-national-child-labour-project-to-be-shelved-in-jk-89743.aspx