India makes significant bid to end child labour

India is among the only 14 countries to have made significant advancement in efforts to eliminate child labour in 2017, an official US report said

Washington, Sept. 22: India is among the only 14 countries to have made significant advancement in efforts to eliminate child labour in 2017, an official US report said on Saturday.

“In 2017, India made a significant advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour,” the US Department of Labor said in its annual ' Child Labour and Forced Labour' report.

It said the Findings on the ' Worst Forms of Child Labour', mandated by the Trade and Development Act of 2000, is the most comprehensive research product on the state of child labour worldwide.

This year, the report uses more stringent criteria to assess the efforts of 132 countries and territories to address child labour, the report added. “Only 14 countries including Colombia, Paraguay, and India met the new criteria for “Significant Advancement”, which this year requires specific legal and policy labour standards to be met,” it said.

The Department of Labor said the Indian government ratified both ILO Convention 182 and Convention 138 and amended the Child Labor Act to prohibit children under the age of 18 years from working in hazardous occupations and processes. The government also launched the ' Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour' to more effectively enforce child labour laws and implement the ' National Child Labour Programme'. In addition, the government released a new “National Plan of Action for Children” that implements the “National Policy for Children”, which includes a focus on child labourers, trafficked children, and other vulnerable children, it said.