US extends financial help to eliminate child labour in India

Kolkata, Jun 9 (UNI) The United States Department of Labour and the Union government have contributed 20 million USD each to the INDUS project to ensure elimination of child labour in Delhi and four other states of the country, US Consul General in Kolkata Henry V Jardine said here today.

Speaking at a meeting on ''Education: The Right Response to Child Labour'' here, the Consul General said besides the capital the project would be implemented across 21 districts in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Jardine said this was the ''largest programme'' ever supported by the US Department of Labour outside the United States to help eliminate child labour from hazardous industries.

'' It is not the duty of governments alone to fight this problem, it is also the responsibility of NGOs, corporate bodies and civil society organisations to jointly work for eliminating child labour from this country, '' Mr Jardine observed.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there were more than 200 million children aged between 5 to 11 years trapped in child labour across the world, he said, adding the Asia Pacific region held the dubious distinction of having the highest number of working children in the world-more than 122 million.

Stressing on education to eliminate child labour, Mr Jardine said education was a human right to tackle this problem and reduce poverty.

'' A recent ILO study has suggested that the elimination of child labour and its replacement by universal education will yield major economic benefits in addition to the social benefits, '' he maintained.

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