BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to construct temporary shelters across the districts to house child labourers who are rescued from the establishments or individual employers. The first of the shelters would come up in Bhubaneswar and gradually in all other districts. The move accompanies formulation of an action plan to carry forward the efforts for eradication of child labour in the State. The plan would be implemented at a cost of ` 80 lakh, State Labour Commissioner Alekh Chandra Padhiary said on Sunday. The Government is also considering proposals for increasing the salaries of the teachers engaged in National Child Labour school Project (NCLP) schools. The teachers of such schools were facing great problems as they were being paid a measly ` 50 a day as wages, Padhiary said at a function chaired by Khurda Collector Hrushikesh Tripathy to mark the World Day against Child Labour here on Sunday. The Government has also undertaken a massive campaign to raise awareness on child labour issues. For the first time in the State, a door-to door campaign involving labour officials and members of social organisations has been launched. They are touching all apartment buildings and residential complexes to persuade people to refrain from keeping minors and children as servants or domestic helps. Khurda district labour officer Ajay Kumar Patnaik said that till date 2,000 children have been rescued and rehabilitated under the NCLP project. The Labour Department in its drive against the people engaging children in hazardous sectors has filed 69 cases under the Child Labour Act in the last one year. According to present trends, though the number of child labourers is gradually increasing in the organised sector, the situation is still acute in the unorganised sector. As the problems of children are directly linked with the socio-economic and political systems, the laws and regulations should be strictly enforced if the malaise is to be eradicated completely, PECUC secretary Ranjan Mohanty said. Trade Union leaders stressed coordinated efforts on the part of all stakeholders from the Government to the employers and the general public to make fruitful advances in dealing with the social ill.
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