KOCHI, JULY 13: Kerala will soon be adding one more first to its many other achievements. The state is drafting a new legislation totally banning child labour - it is the first state in the country to do so.The draft of the Bill has already been prepared by the Department of Labour and is expected to be presented before the Assembly in due course. Kerala is also planning to set up a Child Labour Elimination Authority with the chief minister as its chairman. The authority will coordinate the work of the concerned branches and pool the resources of departments like Social Welfare, Labour, and Education as well as UNICEF and non-governmental organisations.Currently, there is only a Central Act banning child labour. The Act contemplated by Kerala plans to erase the dividing line between hazardous and non-hazardous jobs, enjoined by the Central Act, thus banning all types of child labour, be it hazardous or non-hazardous - a euphemism that is difficult to pinpoint.The Act has yet another major lacuna - the absence of any measures for rehabilitation of the rescued child. When a child is discovered in a hazardous job, s/he is rescued and either returned to his/her parents or kept in a Home under the Juvenile Justice Act. The only benefit for the child is that s/he is rescued, but no action is taken to rehabilitate him Labour Department is currently interacting with experts to gauge their reaction and incorporating suggestions into the proposed Bill. The Department is interacting with all trade unions and employers unions in the process.``Kerala is the only state where there is a strong employers union, in tandem with the employees union,'' points out Labour Commissioner P H Kurien.The move to craft the Child Labour Eradication Bill was mooted after a survey commissioned by the Department of Labour pointed to the existence of in this highly progressive and literate state. Though the survey is anything but scientific, there is evidence that child labour is rampant in the hotel industry, construction sites, brick kilns, street trades, coir and fish sectors, etc.This is apart from the increasing presence of domestic child labour, brought in by contractors from within and outside Kerala. There was an instance of a contractor who brought in 13 children from Orissa for domestic service in Kerala.The survey had revealed that Kerala has over 10,000 child labourers, 95 per cent of whom are in the organised sector and 70 per cent are from Tamil Nadu. Children are preferred because they are manageable, can be paid less, and are ignorant of their rights. Child labour continues to flourish because no complaints are received against it by the Labour Department.``People who see such exploitation should immediately complain to the Department,'' says Kurien.The Child Labour Elimination Authority will have a time-bound Action Plan with awareness creation as the major component. Awareness will be created through the print and audio-visual media. The government also proposes to consider the demand that the definition of the age of the child be raised to 16 or 18.
