Eradicate child labour with multi-stakeholder approach: Tripathy

Chennai, Jun 15 (UNI) Child labour was a major socio-economic complex problem and it should be eradicated with a multi-stakeholder approach, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary L K Tripathy has said.

Addressing the representatives of NGOs and government departments at a workshop conducted by the Labour Department here last evening, he said the problem was complex and had to be tackled from all sides.

''Stakeholders should evolve their own action plan to eliminate child labour, as the government had done,'' he said and added that they should also assess where the State stood in terms of eliminating child labour.

The focus should be on ''freeing the children and facilitating their entry into the mainstream, he said.

Observing that the ''Education for all'' programme was the ideal tool to prevent child labour, Mr Tripathy said the child should be provided with an appropriate education.

''The child should also be allowed to learn at his or her own pace and that the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme in Tamil Nadu had put the State way ahead of others in achieving its targets of literacy and engaging children.

Stating that eradicating child labour was one of the thrust areas of the government, he said a road map was drawn and time frame fixed for eradicating child labour in all forms of employments, especially in domestic and hospitality sectors.

The State government had also issued an order specifying the criteria to declare a district as Child labour free and the state emerging as a leading player in this regard.

UNI