Lack of funds overshadows fate of child labourers

Officials said apart from schools in Kutch district,no instalment of funds for the upkeep has been received since December 2008. They added the funds sent by the Union ministry are irregular and has been affecting their projects.

“In Panchmahals and Godhra,some of the trusts who had given buildings or uniforms to the school students have been paying money. But they have also stopped because these organisations cannot fund anymore. We had no other option but to close these schools,” said Government Labour Officer G L Patel.

On the other hand,Assistant Labour Commissioner for the Vadodara Region,V J Pandya,who looks after the projects in Central Gujarat,said Dahod and Panchmahals are the worst affected among the NCLP schools.

According to the Labour department officials,funds amounting to around Rs 6 lakh for seven NCLP schools in Dahod,Rs 12 lakh for nine schools in Panchmahals and Rs 30 lakh for the schools in Vadodara have not been released yet.

Meanwhile,85 teachers for the three districts and other NCLP teachers in state get paltry sum of Rs 1500 as salary.

“There are seven schools in Dahod,nine in Panchmahal and 15 in Vadodara. In Vadodara,the NGOs are still running the schools but teachers in all the three districts have not been paid since December 2008 or January 2009. I have written seven letters to Ministry of Labour in Delhi. However,they did not pay any heed to the issue. Thereafter,we visited the officials last month. They assured us that in three days all the issues regarding the payments would be resolved but nothing happened. So far,apart from Kutch district they have not disbursed any funds,” added Pandya.

Officials added that the Right to Education Act after it is passed by the Parliament would overshadow the need to open special child labour schools under NCLP. “However,it is not just about the students but also about the teachers for whom it is a matter of employment,” added one of the officials.