Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

Rights of Women and Children
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8.44 NCLP has been extended to 14 more districts in MP – 2 in 2002-03 and 12 in 20003-
04. The operationalization is found to be very slow.
8.45 MP is one of the four States selected for the launching of INDUS Child Labour
Project, a cooperative efforts of the Ministry of Labour, Government of India and the
United States Department of Labour. Five districts namely Jabalpur, Sagar, Damoh, Satna
and Katni which have the highest concentration of beedi-making home establishments in
the State has been selected for this project. A total of 4000 beneficiary children are required
to be selected in each district. 1000 in the age group 5-8 years are to be enrolled in the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Schools. 2000 beneficiaries are to be enrolled for
Transitional Educational Centres (TECs), 1000 beneficiaries in 14-17 years are to be
enrolled in Employment Oriented Vocational Training Centres. A total of 3805 beneficiaries
in 5-8 years group have been admitted to SSA Schools, 175 TECs have started functioning
with 7500 students. The progress of opening of Vocational Training Centre is however
slow. Only two such Centres have been opened in Damoh and 30 (out of 3341) selected
beneficiaries admitted.
Maharashtra
8.46 A total of 5685 children have been identified as engaged in hazardous occupations in
Maharashtra as a result of four surveys starting from 1996-97 reference to which was made in the
last annual report. Follow-up action on these surveys as per the directions given by the Supreme
Court in M.C. Mehta case has been utterly inadequate. No progress is shown during the period
under review in terms of educational rehabilitation of children, economic rehabilitation of the affected
families and realization of Rs. 20,000 per child from the offending employers. Moreover, not a
single child labour has been detected after the last survey conducted in 2001-02.
8.47 A total of 440 prosecutions were launched against the employers in regard to 1997
survey. No prosecutions were launched in regard to the survey of 1999-2000. 291
prosecutions were launched with regard to the survey of 2001-02. Out of a total of 731
prosecutions launched since 1996-97, 108 have been disposed of – 93 in acquittal and 15 in
conviction. 623 cases are pending trial.
8.48 In a Review meeting taken by the Justice K. Ramaswamy, former Member NHRC on
19-01-2002, the need for extending the NCLP, covering only two Districts namely Sholapur
and Thane, to a few more districts was pointed out. The project has now been sanctioned
for 11 additional districts. Districts Nasik, Dhule, Beed, Yotmal and Nanded were sanctioned
NCLP from 1.1.2004. The scheme was extended to six more districts namely Ahmednagar,
Pune, Sanghi, Kolhapur, Jalgaon and Nandubar on 8.10.2004. However, the
operationalization of the new projects sanctioned in January/October 2004 is slow. The
project has been operationalized in only two districts – Nanded (10 schools) and Beed (10
schools) till the time of the review (18-02-2005).
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