Jaipur: To eradicate child labour from the state by the year 2030, department of child rights Monday launched a Child Labour Free Rajasthan campaign under which awareness activities with stakeholders will be conducted.Departments will work on spreading information about child labour-free products, with mandatory certification for this. On Monday, a one-day training workshop was conducted for child welfare committee members and department officials from across the state on effective implementation, action, and awareness of Child and Adolescent Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) 1986 amended rules 2017.Minister of state for child rights, Manju Baghmar, while addressing the session, said the state govt was moving towards making Rajasthan child labour free by 2030. She said that due to poor health, poverty, and illiteracy of parents, children are forced into child labour.“Officials should work towards rescuing children involved in child labour and counsel them. Along with counselling, children should be motivated to continue regular education. Child labour can be prevented in a better way only by ensuring education,” said Baghmar.Additional chief secretary for child rights department, Kuldeep Ranka, said poverty was a big curse that forces children towards labour and 61% of the world’s child labourers are from Asia.“According to the definition made after the amendment in the rules in 2016, if a child does any kind of work other than family business and child artist, then it comes under the category of child labour. Task force and district-level teams have been formed in every district to identify child labourers and rehabilitate them,” said Ranka.Experts from UNICEF and Save the Children participating in the workshop urged all the people of the state that if they buy any goods from a shop in the market, they must ask the shopkeeper whether the goods have been prepared by child labour or not, which will help in the prevention of child labour. Experts said that in many developed countries, products made by child labour are boycotted.
