Udupi, 13 Jun 2013: The child labour still persists in Udupi district that has highest literacy. There are child labourers working in several household families whose data is difficult to get. The children of migrant labourers also work along with their parents, said zilla panchayat CEO S A Prabhakar Sharma.
Sharma was speaking after presiding the World Anti Child Labour Day that was jointly organized by district labour department and district labour implementation office, at district headquarter here on Wednesday June 12.
‘It’s a great challenge how to convince the parents of child labourers who are being robbed of their childhood. Until and unless the parents of child labourers are convinced that the children had to be educated to come out of the clutches of bonded labour, one cannot put an end to child labour. Meanwhile, there is nothing wrong in taking legal action on parents who send their children for work in the interest of latter, said Sharma.
The headquarter assistant Kumar in his chief guest’s address said that although India ranks second in population, the child labour exists owing to illiteracy, poverty and socio-economic issues. If the socio-economic issues are addressed it would be possible to put an end to child labour. The society has to co-operate with state authorities in this regard, urged Kumar.
The zilla panchayat president Upendra Nayak inaugurated the programme.
The taluk panchayat president Gowri V Poojary, district information and broadcasting officer Junjanna, pre-university education department deputy director S S Shinda, district labour officer Devaraju M N, public instruction department deputy director Nagendra Madhyasta were present at the occasion.
The district child labour implementation officer Prabhakar Achar welcomed the gathering. The labour inspector R Ravikumar compered the programme. Kundapur labour director Jeevan Kumar proposed vote of thanks.