Agriculture is a hazardous work for children, says NGO

Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) An NGO today appealed to the stategovernment to include agriculture in the list of hazardousjobs for children under the Child Labour - Prohibition andRegulation Act.

At a public hearing'' held here by the NGO Save theChildren, participants demanded that such inclusion will bringrelief to the child labourers who work on farms.

"We want to ensure that child labour becomes sociallyunacceptable and children engaged are weaned away andprevented from entering the workforce," Sudipta Kumar,Programme Manager, Save the Children said.

Nearly 67 per cent of child workers are engaged inagriculture, he said.

"Children carry out jobs like spraying pesticides,which is hazardous. Therefore, it is necessary to makeamendments to the Act," said journalist Kalpana Sharma, one ofthe jury members at the hearing.

Tabassum Latif (11) from a village in Akola districtand Arjun Jadhav (13) from a village in Washim district, saidthat they always face back-pain due to long hours of work, andskin-rashes because of handling urea, or pesticides, etc. Fora work of ten hours, they earn a mere Rs 40, they said.