NEW DELHI: THE Delhi High Court on Friday directed the AAP government and the police to strictly follow the Delhi Action Plan for Total Abolition of Child Labour, which lays down the procedure for interim care and protection of rescued children.
The court said that it was the duty of the authorities to ensure that there was no violation of the provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act and the Bounded Labour System (Abolition) Act.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar noted that the action plan was submitted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and accepted by the court in its orders of July 15, 2009 and November 5, 2014.
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The court was hearing a plea by an NGO, Save the Childhood Foundation, seeking implementation of the 2009 judgement to prevent and eliminate child labour.
While disposing of the plea, the court incorporated the suggestions given by senior advocate H S Phoolka and lawyers Prabhsahay Kaur and Shilpa Diwan on the issue of elimination of child labour and gave them as directions to various departments of the Delhi government and civic bodies, Delhi Police and Delhi Legal Service Authority.
In the July 2009 judgement, the high court had modified the existing provisions for better rehabilitation of child labourers and had widened the involvement of police in operations for rescue of child labourers in the city.
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In November 2014, the high court had disposed of a petition seeking complete elimination of child labour from the national capital after the city’s additional commissioner of labour had assured the court of action on the issue.
In its application, the NGO had sought a direction to the government to file an action taken or compliance report in terms of the 2009 judgement.
Delhi action plan for child labourers
The Delhi action plan provides for a detailed procedure to be adopted at the pre-rescue and actual rescue stage, and for interim care and protection of the rescued child labourers.
(With PTI inputs)