THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Chairperson Shantha Sinha has said that States were duty-bound to repatriate migrant child labourers to their home states.
“Before reptriation, these children belong to the State in which they are working. A State cannot differentiate between children of the State and children in the State. It is untenable under any law. A state will have to take care of them such as their own and then find ways to repatriate them to their home State,” Shantha said during a seminar on children’s issues organised by Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society here on Sunday.
She said that the Delhi Government had recently transferred a group of child migrants from Bihar. “The Delhi Government used the services of Bihar’s resident commissioner in Delhi to shift the migrant labourers back home,” Shanthi said.
The NCPCR monthly newsletter speaks of the chairperson’s inspection of the educational and nutritional facilities set up for migrant children at the Bardoli Sugar Cooperative in Gujarat.
The chairperson had even asked the Gujarat Chief Secretary to report back to the Commission to set up the health and educational facilities for migrant children.