BHUBANESWAR: Minister of State for Labour and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Sushant Singh on Sunday emphasised on education and massive awareness to eliminate child labour which is the worst form of violence on children.“We all need to work together to eradicate child labour and bring them to mainstream through education. The State Government is taking up various steps for welfare of children. But we all need to work together to end the menace,” he said while flagging off a human chain, signature campaign and a walk against child labour organised by child rights organisation People’s Cultural Centre in association with Labour Directorate.
Child labour not only affects a child’s health, it impacts his/her ability to receive schooling and perform academically. When children are forced by their families to work, they no longer have the time to attend school.Stating that child abuse is a major cause of concern, which creates barrier for free growth of children, former Labour Commissioner Ashwini Das stressed on coordination and convergence between different departments and key stakeholders to curb it.
Hundreds of students from different colleges participated in the walk from Ram Mandir to Lower PMG and signature campaign and human chain at Station Square. Meanwhile, with incidents of child abuse assuming alarming proportion in the State, World Vision India, a humanitarian organisation working for child protection, has launched its national campaign in Odisha with an aim to end sexual abuse and exploitation of children by 2021.
Women and Child Development Minister Prafulla Samal has launched the campaign titled “It takes Every Indian to End Child Sexual Abuse”. “It is our moral responsibility to educate our children on good and bad touch. There is a need to spread awareness on various acts, so that it can help strengthen child sexual abuse case reporting mechanisms,” he said.
Odisha ranked fourth in list of worst rate of child sexual abuse in the country which stands second in world. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 109 cases were registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in the State in 2014. Similarly, of 10,854 cases of child rapes in the country during 2015, about 1,052 cases were registered in Odisha, which ranked third.