All stakeholders should be utmost vigilant to wipe out child labour and child marriage from the State, Minister for Health Veena George has said.
She was speaking after inaugurating a meeting of the stakeholders here on Tuesday to discuss the activities to be taken up ahead of declaration of Kerala as child labour and child marriage-free State. It was organised by the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in association with the Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
The Minister said the activities for the declaration were being taken up in a centralised manner. The objective was to bring child labour and child marriage to negligible levels. Sarana Balyam, a project launched in Pathanamthitta to monitor child labour and child beggary, had rescue officers in all 14 districts.
During inspections by the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, it was found that children were engaging in various employments. Their identity records were found to be fake. The commission’s intention was to ensure that no child below the age of 18 was engaging in labour. This would help make the State child-friendly, commission chairperson K.V. Manojkumar who presided over the meeting said.
As many as 772 cases of child labour were registered in the country in 2019, 476 in 2020, and 613 in 2021. However, in Kerala, this was two, zero, and three, respectively. In 2022, the State Crime Records Bureau reported three cases of child labour. There were no cases involving children below the age of 14. All related to adolescent labour. The children involved were from other States and did not engage in hazardous work.
When it came to child marriage, 523 cases were registered in the country in 2019, 785 in 2020, and 1,050 in 2021. However in the State, there were seven, eight, and 12 cases, respectively. In 2022, four cases were reported. It can be reviewed that the commission’s interventions helped reduce child marriage in the State, the meeting said.
The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, Section 109, provided for the commission to monitor the law. It was already conducting inspections and implementing action plans to make the State free of child labour and child marriage.
At the meeting, various departments analysed the current child labour situation, and discussed chid-adolescent labour rehabilitation fund utilisation, formation of district-level task force, who will be the task force members, and its responsibilities.
