Children stage public awareness rally on 'World Day Against Child Labour' in Agra

Agra, June 12 (ANI): Hundreds of children participated in a rally to create public awareness on child labour on the occasion of 'World Day Against Child Labour' (May 12) here on Saturday.

The rally was intended to create awareness among people to prevent child labour.

"The main motive of the rally is to create awareness on child labour. We should all realise that the child is not meant to do labour work but they should be provided education so that they can benefit the society," said Raj Kumar Shrivastava, Chief Development Officer (CDO) of Agra after he flagged off the rally.

Many rescued children of child labour from the slums participated in the rally.

On this occasion, Assistant labour commissioner of Agra , Rita Bhadoriya said that as per her studies child labour had nothing to do with poverty.

"Parents make their children work out of lack of awareness. I believe this is not related to poverty because in my experience and many a times in my case studies I have noticed that if a family is earning 5000 rupees after making their child do labour work, then also they make their child work. But I have also seen such families those who get their children educated even after earning a meagre 4000 rupees," said Rita Bhadoriya.

Over 12 million children below the age of 14 are working as domestic servants, or in other laborious jobs, such as in stone quarries, embroidery units, mines, carpet-weaving units, tea stalls, restaurants and hotels, according to government data.

A law prohibiting employing children in homes and in the hospitality industry came into effect in October, 2006. However, there have only been 1,680 prosecutions and not a single conviction.

The law, according to which violators face a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs 20,000 is an extension of a previous ban date 1986, which prohibited children from working in jobs deemed 'too hazardous' for minors, such as in factories, quarries and mines.

Child rights campaigners say that like the previous ban, the 2006 law has neither been properly implemented nor enforced. (ANI)