State Level Steering Committee meeting: Safety of rescued child workers discussed

NEW DELHI: In a meeting of the State Level Steering Committee on Child Labour, safety of rescued child labourers were given priority and issues related to data, proper documentation and the health of the rescued child labourers were discussed. Sources told Millennium

Post that Divisional Commissioner expressed displeasure for non-attendance of some member departments.

Additional Labour Commissioner made a detailed presentation on the issue of child labour.

The members were informed about the actionable points of 3rd meeting held earlier this year. ATR (action taken report) received from various stakeholders was also discussed in details.

Issue of non-submission of ATR by the office of three Resident Commissioners and government departments was also presented in the meeting. Divisional Commissioner took a serious view of it and directed that these departments must submit ATRS before next date of the meeting.

An official from Directorate of Education requested that districts may be directed to share data of rescued child labour every month in already circulated format. It was also pointed out that in many cases, the address of the child was not found.

On this issue, Labour Department informed that the rescue operations are carried out by District Task Force and said information may be sent either by concerned SDM or Deputy Labour Commissioner of the district since he is the member secretary. It was also informed that all DLCS of Labour Department have already been directed to send child labour rescue operation details every month to the Education department. However, the reminder on this issue shall be sent to all DLCS.

Divisional Commissioner desired that proposal for the strengthening of Child Labour Rehabilitation Cum Welfare Society be prepared within 8 to 10 days and be submitted before the members of the committee in the next meeting indicating financial expenditure and other administrative issues etc. The ATR submitted by Delhi Police was also discussed in the meeting. Divisional Commissioner directed that a detailed breakup of each complaint including FIR registered and charge sheet filed be sought from Delhi Police.

Also, there was a mismatch of data with regard to the number of FIRS registered and the number of charge sheets filed by the police, this issue also needs to be clarified by police authorities.

During the meeting, discussion was also on the topic of the jurisdiction of CWC is yet to be made coterminous with the Revenue Department.

The Divisional Commissioner asked that the representative from CWC and Director WCD may be informed about the same to sort out the issue.

The meeting was held few months ago. More than 20 officials of various government departments, MCDS were present.