Submitted by crinadmin on
[NEW DELHI, 12 January 2011] - Blaming Delhi government for not taking proper action for rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Wednesday submitted an affidavit before the Delhi high court seeking directions to government authorities on the issue of child labour. Informing the court that rescued children were not being properly rehabilitated, the NCPCR, in its affidavit, stated, "There is no guarantee that all rescued child labourers have been successfully restored to their families in the source states. This is evident from a study of 22 rescued child labourers in which the families of three are not traceable and the addresses of four children were wrong." It said that efforts to rescue child labourers were not being taken up seriously by the labour department and sub-divisional magistrates. "There is no definite feedback regarding proper rehabilitation of all rescued child labourers," it said. "Complaints from NGOs about engagement of child labourers are not acted upon promptly. In fact there have been inordinate delays on the part of task force to act upon such complaints," the NCPCR stated. The affidavit was filed to inform the court about the steps taken by the government after a slew of directions were given by the high court for the rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers in the city. The high court had, in 2009, passed a detailed order which modified the existing provisions for better rehabilitation of child labourers. It had given Delhi Police extra powers, which were earlier with the labour department, to effectively eradicate the problem. "We direct that the responsibility of lodging a police complaint against a person employing child labour would lie with Delhi Police and not the labour department," the court had said, asking police to recover Rs 20,000 from the offenders as penalty without waiting for a "conviction order of the offending employer". Further Information: