BENGALURU: Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), Karnataka a collective of voluntary organisations working for literacy and rights of marginalised children while welcoming the Kalika Bhagya scheme, has appealed to the state government to make it more flexible for maximum outreach.
The scheme provides educational opportunities through a scholarship to children of construction workers. The last date for applying is July 15.
“Kalika Bhagya (KB) would give an opportunity to children of construction workers to study and not join their parents in hard labour but how many construction workers know about it? How will they avail it? The objective of the scheme is to ensure that all children get educated. Education is the right of every child as per Article 21 A and the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009,” said the state convenor of CACL-K Vasudev Sharma.
He said most construction workers are Below Poverty Line and are unorganised.
“Many of them are not even enrolled with the welfare scheme of the labour department. They may not even know about the scheme. The government should advertise it widely on TV and make a small film and post it on social media for maximum awareness. We urge the government to extend the deadline for registration from July 15 to August 11 as it is too short a window for this sector to register their children,” he urged.
CACL-K has urged the government to facilitate the registration of construction workers and their children in every gram panchayat and at the ward level so that it can reach everyone.
The NGOs collective has further urged for coordination among departments of labour, education and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) for increased registration of children in the KB scheme.