Institutional Design for Tackling Child Labour Problem First Edition  (English, Hardcover, Gayathri Devi K. G.)

Despite the existence of government policies and programmes, the incidence of child labour is high in India. Taking State Child Labour Programme (SCLP) implemented in Karnataka as a case, this book suggests the institutional changes that are needed to tackle the problem of child labour. SCLP did well in the identification and rehabilitation of child labourers. An overwhelming majority of children completed the bridge school because of provision of residential and boarding facilities. However, rehabilitated children could not be mainstreamed due to inability to get admission into government hostels and limited options to pursue vocational education. In order to reduce the problem of child labour, the government should rehabilitate children through residential bridge schools, reserve seats in the government schools with hostels for rehabilitated child labourers and provide appropriate vocational education to children uninterested in regular school education. Since the poverty is the main cause for child labour, efforts should be made to target parents of child labourers in the existing SHGs or by forming new ones for them and providing assistance to strengthen their livelihood activities. A task force under gram panchayat or municipality is needed to prevent and tackle the problem of child labour.