The government is pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to eliminate child labour and has taken comprehensive measures, which include legislative action, rehabilitation strategy and providing the right to free education, Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said on March 14. Yadav also said that the government is not maintaining central data of school-going children who are involved as labourers with their families.

"The government is pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to eliminate child labour and has taken comprehensive measures which include legislative measures, rehabilitation strategy, providing right of free education and general socio-economic development so as to eliminate the incidence of child labour," he said in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour. Giving details about statutory and legislative measures, rehabilitation strategy and education, Yadav said that the government has enacted the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 which came into force on September 1, 2016, and the amendment provides stricter punishment for employers for violation of the Act and made the offence as cognisable.

Framing of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Central Rules, framing of a model state action plan enumerating action points to be taken by respective state governments and circulation of the same to chief secretaries of all states, implementation of the National Child Labour Project scheme for rehabilitation of child labour, which has now been subsumed under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Scheme, are some of the other measures, he added.

Meanwhile, according to the data tabled by Karnataka Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar in response to a question by Congress MLA Tanveer Sait late last week in the State Assembly, 972 children were rescued from child labour from the state alone between 2018 and 2020.