Orissa sets panel to rehabilitate child labourers

Bhubaneswar, Oct 17: A seven-member ministerial committee headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been constituted to look into the problems and rehabilitation of child labourers in Orissa.

The government action came in the wake of a recent protest demonstration by child labourers before the residence of Union Labour and Employment Minister Chandra Sekhar Sahoo at Berhampur, his home constituency.

The decision to constitute the panel was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Minister here yesterday.

Carrying placards and shouting slogans the labourers sat on a dharna before Mr Sahoo's residence demanding their rehabilitation after the new law banning the child labour came into force across the country on October 10 last.

The Ministerial committee would have women and Child development Minister Pramilla Mallick, Mass Education Minister Bishnu Das, Panchayat Raj Minister Raghunath Mohanty, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Minister Chaitanya Prasad Majhi, Urban development Minister K V Singdeo and Labour Minister Jayanarayan Mishra as members.

It meeting decided to set up transit homes in urban areas to rehabilitate the child labourers. In the first phase such homes would be set up in Jajpur, Balasore, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar, Puri and Jharsugura.

A secretary level committee comprising secretaries of Women and Child development, Panchayat Raj, Labour and employment and Mass Education would visit Maharastra to study the steps taken by the government there for the rehabilitation of child labourers.

The government has decided to approach the Centre to cover all the districts under the National Child Labour Abolition programme instead of 18 districts presently included under the scheme.

While sanctioning Rs.1 crore to undertake a survey on the status of the child labourers in Orissa, the state government decided to approach the Centre to provide more funds to complete the task and set up more schools under the Central scheme.

The Chief Minister, official sources said, henceforth would review the rehabilitation and other programmes meant for the child labourers in the state every month.

UNI