| Press Information Bureau Government of India |
| 03 January 2007 | |||||
| Ministry of Labour & Employment | |||||
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR FIXING PERIODICAL TARGETS TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR LABOUR MINISTER PRESENTS TO THE PRESIDENT SET OF COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMPS ON CHILD LABOUR |
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| 17:52 IST | |||||
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The President Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam has called for fixing periodical targets to reduce the number of working children in the country. Expressing concern over the increase in their number during the period from 1990 to 2000, Dr. Kalam said that rehabilitation should be made part of the programme to eliminate child labour. The President said this while a Stamp Album containing a set of 4 postage stamps on child labour was presented by the Minister of State for Labour & Employment (Independent Charge), Shri Oscar Fernandes to Dr. Kalam at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan today. These stamps on the theme of ‘Stop Child Labour’ were released a few days ago by the Department of Posts on the request of the Ministry of Labour & Employment for creating public awareness on the issue. Dr. Kalam also referred to the huge network of over 1.50 lakh post offices in the country and said that it should also be used for developmental activities.
Answering queries on the issue of child labour, Shri Fernandes told the President that the Labour Ministry is taking several pro-active measures for the elimination of child labour in the country. He said the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme, launched in 1988 to rehabilitate the working children is the single largest programme of the Labour Ministry and accounts for almost one-half of the budget of the Ministry during the current plan. The NCLP Scheme was started in 9 districts and since then, its coverage has been progressively increased to cover 250 districts in the country. For the 11th Plan, it has been proposed to expand the Scheme to cover all the districts in the country. The function was attended by the Secretary, Labour & Employment, Smt. Sudha Pillai and Secretary, Posts, Shri I.M.G. Khan, beside other senior officials of the Ministry. The function was held to highlight the issue of child labour in the country. This has been a part of various measures taken b the Ministry of Labour & Employment to create wide scale public awareness on the issue in the last few months following the Government’s decision to ban employment of children as domestic servants and in dhabas, restaurants and teashops etc. from October 10, 2006. MLD:LK:L-166( commemorative postage stamps)3.1.07 |
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