Labour Department to count child labourers
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 13 2012:
Labour Department is all set to conduct a survey in Imphal East and Imphal West districts with the primary objective of finding out number of child labourers in the two districts.
As the Labour Department has no idea about the number of child labourers in the State, the department is unable to implement the National Child Labour Project which has been launched under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour.
The project is aimed at rehabilitating child labourers.
To implement the project, it is vital to collect detailed information about the number of child labourers.
That is why, Labour Department is gearing to conduct a survey.
The Labour Department has already opened a cell to facilitate the proposed survey.
However, there has been no response from the side of the State Government to the department's proposal on the methodology of the survey.
Nonetheless, a target has been set to begin the survey by July 10 this year, conveyed an official source.
Labour Department once conducted a survey about the number of child labourers within Imphal Municipal area in 2005 .
The survey recorded 365 child labourers.
After that, no survey was conducted by Labour Department.
Yet many awareness programmes were organised by the department to check the malaise of child labour.
The department has been actively propagating messages to stop the practice of child labour and discourage parents from sending out their children to work, the official added.
However, the practice of child labour is rampant in many commercial areas of the State.