The Hindu 13.11.2009
Mayor calls for end to child labour
Staff Reporter
| Campaign to begin tomorrow |
Number of street children has come down, says Mayor
Signature drive on child rights to be taken up
VIJAYAWADA: The Forum For Child Rights, which is working for the rehabilitation of street children and child labourers, is observing Child Rights Week from the Children’s Day on Saturday. The forum seeks to conduct awareness programmes for a cross section of society, besides conducting special drives to rehabilitate children at work.
Addressing a press conference after releasing publicity material for the weeklong programme on Thursday, president of the forum and Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu underscored the need for creating awareness among the public about the necessity for eliminating the practice of child labour.
“Unfortunately, many educated people are employing minor girls as domestic maids. The same is the case with tea stalls and mechanic sheds, where we can see young boys at work,” she observed.
As a result of the efforts put in by the forum, the incidence of street children and child labour came down by half in the city, Ms. Ratna Bindu said. The remaining 50 per cent of the problem could only be addressed by the entire society. “Unless we take up a massive campaign and make people at the grass route level aware of the problem, we can’t tackle this. It is not the responsibility of only a few service organisations to create a child labour free society,” she observed.
Giving details of the weeklong programme, Ms. Ratna Bindu said that an “adolescent girls awareness programme” would be conducted at Bishop Azaraiah School, Giripuram on November 15. A signature campaign on child rights advocacy would be conducted at Swaraj Maidan and a workshop on Right To Information Act would be organised at Tana Rescue Shelter, Hanumanpet, on November 16.
Workshop
Ehsaas workshop would be conducted at Prema Vihar, Bhavanipuram on November 17 and 18 and the “World day for Prevention of child abuse” would be observed at Tana Rescue Shelter, Hanumanpet on November 19.
The “World child rights day” would be observed at Tummalapallivari Kshetrayya Kalakshetram on November 20.
Treasurer of the forum B.S. Koteswara Rao, former MLA K. Subba Raju, former Mayor Jandhyala Sankar, Project Director of Women and Child Welfare Department K. Suhasini Devi, Project Director of the National Child Labour Project K. Sivasankara Rao and others were present.
