(a) whether the Government has any data regarding the number of children who are engaged in family labour while attending schools;
(b) what is the number of children who do not attend school due to their being engaged in family labour;
(c) whether Government has any plan to bring such children also to schools either by allowing them to continue in family labour part time or by compensating their families; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) & (b): No such data is maintained in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Ministry of Labour & Employment has also reported that they do not maintain such data.
(c) & (d): The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which became operative with effect from 1st April, 2010, mandates that all children in the age group of 6-14 years shall be in schools for completing elementary education. Section 4 of the RTE Act provides for special training for age appropriate admission of out of school children. Those children who have missed out certain academic years either because they were never enrolled in school or dropped out of school, have a right to Special Training in residential and non residential mode, subsequently to be mainstreamed in formal schools in age appropriate class.
The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 prohibits the employment of children below 14 years of age in 18 occupations and 65 processes and regulates the working condition of children in employment where they are not prohibited.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment is implementing the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme since 1988 to rehabilitate working children in 12 child labour endemic districts of the country. Children rescued/withdrawn from work in the age group of 9-14 years are enrolled in the NCLP Special Training Centres, where they are provided bridge education, vocational training, mid-day meal, stipend, health care etc. before being mainstreamed into formal education system. Children in the age group of 5-8 years are directly linked to the formal education system through a close coordination with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Presently, the Scheme is being implemented in 270 Districts of 21 States in the country and as per reports received from the Project Societies, about 3230 special training centres are in operation with an enrolment of approximately 1.48 lakh children. Since inception more than 11.40 lakhs children have been mainstreamed into the formal education system
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