Child labour highest in UP, Andhra

New Delhi, Oct 20 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of working children in the country, the government announced today, ten days after the ban on employment of children in dhabas and homes came into effect.

Uttar Pradesh, which is notorious for employing children in the bangle making factories, accounts for 1.92 million child labourers, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 1.36 million.

The state-wise data of working children released by the Labour and Employment Ministry based on the 2001 Census says there is a total of 126.6 million children between 5 and 14 years working in both hazardous and non-hazardous industries across the country.

The government had banned child labour in dhabas, restaurants, tea shops, resorts and also employment of children as domestic labour from October 10 under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

''Recently several news items appearing in newspapers and TV channels are giving varied figures for the magnitude of child labour in the country,'' the Ministry said in a release.

''It is clarified that as per 2001 Census of India figures, there are 1,26,66,377 child labour in the age group of 5-14 years in the country working in both hazardous as well as non-hazardous occupations and processes,'' the Ministry said.

Besides Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, there are three more states - Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh - which have over a million child labour population.

Rajasthan has 1.26 million working children closely followed by Bihar (1.11 million) and Madhya Pradesh (1.06 million).

The least child labour is in the Union Territory of Lakshwadeep, which has only 27 working children as per the 2001 Census.

West Bengal (857,087), Karnataka (822,615), Maharashtra (764,075), Gujarat (485,530), Tamil Nadu (418,801), Jharkhand (407,200), Orissa (377,594), Chhattisgarh (364,572), Assam (351,416), and Haryana (253,491) are the other states where child labour is widely prevalent.

Kerala has a low 26,156 working children and the number in national capital Delhi is 41,899.

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