A month-long campaign against child labour in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district has led to the rescue of 36 children, and the registration of 16 criminal cases against those responsible for forcing them into the work. The intensive campaign witnessed the participation of multiple agencies for the first time, which resulted in a coordinated action to stop child labour.
The campaign was undertaken after the administration went into mission mode to address the issues in the most backward blocks of Udaipur. It began efforts to reduce the student dropout rate, establish primary health centres, implement labour welfare, identify malnourished children, and strengthen anganwadi centres, where children are enrolled for pre-primary education.
Campaign convener Shailendra Pandya told The Hindu that a “comprehensive strategy” would be formulated for rehabilitation of the child labourers rescued from small factories, hotels, kiosks and shops. Mr. Pandya, who is a former member of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, added that Udaipur would soon emerge as a model district on the issue of child rights.
Kids in Bt cotton fields
After the drive ended last week, the campaign issued certificates to those shops and commercial establishments where no child labourers were found, identifying them as “child labour free” places. Action was initiated under the Juvenile Justice Act at places where children were found working.
Mr. Pandya said that the next phase of the campaign would involve action in Udaipur district’s Jhadol, Kotda and Gogunda blocks, where children were reportedly being forced to work in agricultural fields on the pretext of contract farming. “The sudden expansion of Bt cotton crops in these rural pockets suggests that children are being employed for artificial pollination, as their plants are smaller than normal cotton,” he said.
The trend of rural families sending their children to work in Bt cotton fields in neighbouring Gujarat has ended, with the State government’s effective intervention and strong action taken against contractors. Mr. Pandya said that most of the children rescued in the city hailed from the district’s villages, indicating that livelihood opportunities had not been restored completely after the pandemic.
Post-rescue rehab
Child Empowerment Department assistant director Meena Sharma, the nodal officer for the campaign, said that rescued child labourers were produced before the Child Welfare Committee before sending them to shelter homes. The District Child Protection Unit will formulate an action plan to ensure that the children are not sent back to work.
Child welfare officers from police stations, the anti-human trafficking unit, Gayatri Seva Sansthan, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, and Access to Justice played an instrumental role in identifying the child labourers and rescuing them. These agencies then joined the police force in making surprise raids and setting the children free.
