Why in news:

• Recently, the Bikaner administration has started a campaign to make the district free from child labour
• The district has been successful in making it happen for Beechwal industrial area by incorporating support the owners of the industries as well as the factories which operate there.
  
  
   

Key Points:

• All the owners of the industries as well as the factories in the area have pledged that they will not employ any child labour.
• The administration is now gradually replicating this movement in other Tehsils as well.
• This campaign started in June and over 40 children were rescued from Beechwal during this period.
•  Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Right has also extended its support to the campaign and is contemplating to take it to other districts as well.
• As detailed by the Assistant director of Department of Women and Child Development Rajasthan, District collector was mandated to perform the designated task and for the purpose, two teams were formed with the aim of making people aware of the laws to prevent them from employing children.
• The focus of the exercise was always on generating awareness and not punishment, with the priority being given to the well-being of the children, an approach that went a long way in making the process democratic and tagging more people along as the exercise progressed.
• The exercise was originally kickstarted with Beechwal to understand the ground reality and an inspection was undertaken initially to talk to the owners of the factories in a bid to make them understand that it was illegal to employ children below 18 years of age.
• In response to the initial inspection, the owners of the factories took the pledge not to employ children.
• Additionally, awareness boards had been also placed at the industries stating that they do not and will not employ children.
• Going further, the exercise kept up the momentum and as a result of repeated inspections, it was concluded that the area was free of child labour.
• The Beechwal industrial area was declared child labour free on October 26.
• Chairperson, Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights also lauded the exercise calling it a unique approach to eradicating child labour and that it should be replicated in other districts as well.
• Out of the 46 children rescued, 34 were found to be working as child labour and were mostly boys who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as West Bengal.
• Officials claimed that lack of awareness was the main reason that these children were employed in the industrial sector and now post this novel initiative, over 50 owners have signed the pledge that they will not employ minors.
• When the owners of these industries were made aware about the laws like the Juvenile Justice Act, they gave their complete cooperation which was in sync with authorities’ approach as the aim is not punishment but to ensure that people adhere to the laws.
• However, in some cases course of law was also required to be taken and 14 FIRs were lodged over the course of three months as explained by a member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Bikaner.
• Now, the authorities comprising of all the various departments are looking to focus on other industrial area in the districts which includes mostly of food processing units to make Bikaner free of child labour in all forms.