Introduction

           The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has announced a 15 point programme for making Tamil Nadu the best State in the Country in every sphere. Eradication of Child Labour is one of the points. To achieve the above goal an “Action Plan” has been launched to eradicate child labour in all hazardous occupations by 2005 and in non-hazardous occupations by 2007. A State Child Labour Rehabilitation Cum Welfare Society has been formed in the Office of the Commissioner of Labour to oversee the implementation of the Action Plan. This would be achieved by convergence of services of various Departments of the State and Non-Governmental organizations, Employers, Trade Unions etc.  for the release and rehabilitation of children working both in hazardous and non-hazardous occupations.  The children have to be withdrawn from labour force and they should be encouraged to enter into education. Already the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) funded by the Government of India is in operation in 12 districts of Tamil Nadu.

           It is in this context that a Project named INDUS Child Labour Project for eradication of Child Labour, jointly funded by the Government of India and United States Department of Labour is being launched in Tamil Nadu. The International Labour Organization will be the executing agency for this project. The project is to be implemented in five Districts of Tamilnadu viz., Kancheepuram, Namakkal, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai and Virudhunagar. 

Survey conducted by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2003

          In Kancheepuram District, 3417 child labourers were identified. Out of this 1806 are boys and 1611 are girls.  429 of the child labourers are aged less than 9 years.  262 children are engaged in hazardous occupation.  Among the child labourers found in hazardous occupations most of them (125) are working in weaving.

          In Namakkal District, 3229 child labourers were identified. Of these, 1735 are boys and 1494 are girls.  259 child labourers are aged less than 9 years.  1617 children are found employed in hazardous occupations.  Among them 120 are working in Cotton ginning and 66 are working in Automobile workshops.

          In Tiruvallur District, 1153 child labourers were identified.  Of these, 571 are boys and 582 are girls.  281 are aged less than 9 years.  454 child labourers are found employed in hazardous occupations.  Among them, the most prominents are weaving (156), Brick Kiln and Roof tiles (122), and Construction industries (55).

          In Tiruvannamalai District, the survey identified 1427 child labourers.  795 boys and 632 girls.  60 of them are aged less than 9 years.  Out of 423 children employing in hazardous occupations in this district 308 are found in weaving.

          In Virudhunagar district, substantial number of child labourers (6838) was identified. Of this 3094 are boys and 3744 girls; 648 are aged less than 9.  The number of child labourers found in hazardous occupations is 1640.   Among them manufacture of matches occupies first place (1054) followed by fire works (144) and cotton ginning (126).

SSA Survey 2003 - Abstract

INDUS Project structure

The project structure is organized at three levels – national, state and district levels.  The project management team at the national level is located at the ILO Area Office, New Delhi , which provides institutional support and basic infrastructure to the central project team.  There is close interface with the Ministry of Labour and Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, in the Central Government, as well as with the US Department of Labour.  The project is supervised by the National Steering Committee, which is chaired by the Secretary, MOL, and has representatives from government agencies, NGOs, employers’ and workers’ organizations.

State Project Steering Committees (SPSCs) has been set up at the state level.  A State-level Resource Cell (SRC) at the State Child Labour Rehabilitation cum Welfare Society will be established to assist the SPSC in its functioning. The Additional Commissioner of Labour (Child Labour Monitoring Cell), in the cadre of an I.A.S. Officer will function as the State Coordinator of SRC.    The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) society will be responsible for the implementation of the education component of the project in the state.

The National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Society, headed by the Collector, will be responsible for project implementation at the district level.  The NCLP society will be assisted by the District Project Team.  The SSA’s District Project Implementation Unit will be responsible for implementing the public education component.

Package of services

          In each of the selected district there are three groups of direct beneficiaries:

1.                                     1000 younger children (5-8 years) who will be directly enrolled in regular schools and support services

2.                                     2000 older children (9-13 years), who will be provided with transitional education and support services

3.                                     1000 adolescents (14-17 years) who will be provided with vocational training.

In the target districts, the project will mobilize and strengthen the capacity of agencies in the private and public sphere against child labour, enabling them to provide a multi-sectoral package of services.  These services include:

•  identifying children working in hazardous  and non hazardous occupations;

•  withdrawing children and young persons from these hazardous situations;  

• placing the withdrawn children in meaningful and quality education or vocational education/training;

• providing viable income generating opportunities to the families of child workers;

• strengthening public education infrastructure in the target areas; and

• creating a positive environment for prevention of hazardous child labour through public awareness-raising and through involvement of the community in monitoring hazardous child labour.

COMPONENTS OF INDUS PROJECT

Component 1 :  Identification of children at risk

• This component will involve a database on child workers in all hazardous and non hazardous sectors for each target district by;

• conducting surveys in the designated districts and targeted sectors to identify working children;

• developing profiles, by sector, of child workers, their families, their workplace and working conditions;

• developing a compendium of government and other agencies’ programmes in the target areas; and

• establishing detailed and quantifiable indicators of achievement.

The survey agency selected by the State Government will conduct the survey.

Component: 2   Withdrawal and provision of transitional education

Children in the age group of 9-13 years will be withdrawn from hazardous work in the target districts and enrolled in transitional schools and services.  Transitional education in special schools will be a bridge to formal schools or vocational training.  This component will involve:

• identification of suitable agencies to run the transitional schools in consultation with the community;

• training instructors/teachers through governmental or NGO institutions;

• development/adaptation of appropriate teaching material;

• enrolment of identified children in transitional schools;

• provision of teaching material, textbooks, notebooks, stationery and play material, as well as provision of cooked mid-day meals, to enrolled children;

• provision of appropriate health care to enrolled children;

• mainstreaming of children into formal schools within a period of 12 to 18 months;

• follow-up of children mainstreamed into formal school; and

• equip the transitional schools with play and reading material for use by children after school hours.

Component 3:  Vocational training for adolescents

Older children (14-17 years) from the child labour families will be provided vocational training in locally employable and marketable skills.  This will involve:

• assessment of labour market to identify entry level skills for boys and girls to make them employable or self-employed;

• establishment of vocational training centres by local trade/industry associations, employers’ and workers’ organizations and NGOs;

• development or adaptation of existing material and resources for skill training in each locality;

• provision of life skill, language and numeracy education;

• provision of trained vocational training instructors;

• provision of training through attachments system and production-cum-training centres wherever appropriate and feasible;

• enrolment of identified adolescents for the vocational training courses;

• provision of monthly stipend to the enrolled adolescents;

• trade certification to students on completion of the course; and

• linking the centers to job placement services or to job opportunities.

Component 4  :  Income generating alternatives for families

Adult members of families of the target children will be provided opportunities to increase income and the possibility of self-employment.  This will involve:

• formation of self-help groups (SHGs) of 15 mothers each;

• saving of Rs.30-50/- per month by each mother;

• matching grant to be given after six months;

• loan facility after a period of six months;

• training on various income-generation activities, micro-enterprise development,   micro-credit, skill development, etc., for the mothers/parents;

• assistance to mothers to take up economically viable activities linked to the    school, such as running TECs, mid-day meals, etc.

• market linkages; and

• mentor services.

The NCLP society will oversee the programme.  National/State level agencies specializing in income generating activities and micro enterprise development will be identified to act as technical resource agencies to the NCLPs.

Component 5:  Strengthening public education of child workers

The project recognizes the need to strengthen the public education system, with a special focus on children at risk.  It seeks to work through existing government programmes, foremost amongst them being the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).  This will require the project to:  

• invest in improvements in infrastructure, the quality of education, development of community monitoring systems to complement and feed into existing systems, and provide access to education to all children in the target areas;

• support activities, including community mobilization, to ensure enrolment, attendance and retention by extending incentives such as free textbooks and notebooks to all children studying in the target areas;

• support and improve educational institutional reforms, including the development and effective implementation of District Elementary Educational Plans; and

• strengthen both non-formal (transitional) and formal education through joint workshops and training activities.

SSA societies will oversee the activities under this component.

Component 6:  Monitoring and tracking

An independent and credible monitoring system is to be put in place to follow the progress of child workers and their families who are participating in the project.  The monitoring system will see that the following objectives are achieved:

• Child workers are phased out from hazardous work and provided with education, vocational training, etc.

• Families of child labourers are benefiting from the activities envisaged.

• There is adequate follow-up and support after children are going to school.

• Measurable progress is being made towards the prevention and elimination of child labour in the identified sectors in the target areas.

The monitoring will be done by recognized institutions, with the agreement and involvement of the community.  The monitoring system will be designed by technical specialists from the ILO and the Government of India.  The selected institutions will gather information from the children, community, and NCLP, SSA and participating implementing agencies.

Component 7:  Social mobilization

Alongside the project activities, a continuous awareness raising campaign is essential to keep children away from work and prevent child labour in future.  This will involve:

• advocacy and awareness campaigns to make parents, children, employers, social partners, and communities aware of the importance of education, negative consequences of child labour, as well as the legal provisions related to this, particularly the 1986 Act;

•  identification of target groups at various levels, and preparation of advocacy materials in various media formats, organizing forums for discussion, and networking; and

• mobilizing employers’ and workers’ organizations, civil society organizations, families and communities to undertake joint and separate action against child labour.

NCLP society will oversee the activities under this component.  Advocacy material will be prepared by a communications agency.

Component 8: Capacity building of national, state, district and local  

                            Institutions

At the state level, activities such as sensitization and training programmes/workshops will be undertaken to encourage coordination and convergence of all services operating for the elimination of child labour.  This will involve:

• periodic  training, supported by handbooks, guidelines, and other materials, to improve the capacity of labour inspectors to identify and monitor hazardous child labour;

• training to district and state Education Department officials about efficient methods for drawing up District Education Plans, fund utilization, manpower management, etc.;

• training to education officers to adopt participatory monitoring methods to ensure retention of children in conjunction with other stakeholders (e.g. community, village education committee, local self-government bodies);

• orientation to NCLP project directors and project staff, as well as the project staff under SSA about the details of the project and in particular about its objectives, outputs, activities and project management;

• training and sensitization programmes for government agencies, including the officers from rural development, women’s development and child welfare, social welfare, policies, etc., on child labour; and  

• training and sensitization programmes for employers’ and workers’ organizations, NGOs and other civil society bodies.

Component  9  :  Raising interest towards action on hazardous child labour

Consequent upon a mid-term review of the project, the experiences of the project would be documented.  This will involve:

• workshops in each of the four targeted states to document model;

• workshops in six additional states to raise interest; and

• follow-up on any interest raised.

Component  10 : Knowledge management

A national-level institute identified by the National Steering Committee and the GOI, in consultation with the ILO, will assist the NSC in an ongoing review of the project. It will be used as a data bank to store all data pertaining to the project and provide appropriate technical support as defined by the NSC.

Steps taken to implement the Project

Stakeholders Workshops

          In each of the above five districts Stakeholders Consultative Workshops were held.   In order to launch the project, wide range of consultations has been made with key stakeholders.  The stakeholders from Government Departments, NGOs, civil society partners, etc. have come with number of ideas and suggestions for designing project intervention on child labour.

          At State Level the State Child Labour Rehabilitation Cum Welfare Society of Tamil Nadu organized a one day Stakeholders Workshop at Chennai on 18.2.2004. Hon’ble Minister for Labour inaugurated the workshop. The Chief Secretary to Government presided over the function. The involvement of a cross section of stakeholders to generate ideas for interventions by the project and to develop ownership of the Project among stakeholders was the highlight of the workshop.  Issues relating to child labour like, rescue, release, enforcement of labour laws, and rehabilitation through education, income generation, vocational training, monitoring and social mobilization were widely discussed.  Thus, the implementation of the INDUS Project has been conceived after widespread discussions at different level.

Baseline survey

Open tender was floated through leading newspapers for selecting a professional agency to take up the survey in the five districts. The survey agency will be selected shortly. Detailed questionnaires prepared by ILO have been translated into Tamil.

Labour Market survey

The ILO New Delhi had appointed the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), an NGO based at Madurai . The survey will assess the demand for skills in the district, keeping in view the likely profile of the adolescents from child labour families. This survey will throw up a list of skills in demand in the area and also approximate number of workers required for each skill.

Workshop on developing a Child Labour Monitoring System

On 3.2.2004, under the guidance of the INDUS Project Team, ILO New Delhi, a one day workshop to develop a child labour monitoring system was organized. Members from Village Education Committees, Block Resource Coordinators etc under SSA, Officials of labour department, Trade Unions, Employers etc participated.

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