MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Central and State governments on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which sought a series of directions for the eradication of child labour in Tamil Nadu and for the rehabilitation of children rescued from bonded labour.
The litigant, KR Raja, an advocate from Madurai, cited a survey conducted by the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), a national-level network of various organisations that work together to address child labour issues in India, in March last year. As per the survey, child labour has increased by 180% in the State compared to 2020, he said. In Virudhunagar district, the fine amount collected from cracker units for employing children since March 2020 is found to be twice the amount collected in the previous years, he added.
He also stated that the National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) was implemented in 15 districts in Tamil Nadu through 213 Special Training Centres (STCs). After the NCLP was subsumed with Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the Centre asked State governments to admit the rescued children in nearby schools, he added. The rescued children are also entitled to compensation and other reliefs under various schemes for their rehabilitation, he further said. But most of these rescued children are simply kept under safe custody of the government homes without any consideration of their future, he alleged and sought the court's intervention.
A Bench of justices R Mahadevan and J Sathya Narayana Prasad issued notice to the authorities concerned and adjourned the case for two weeks.