Kerala: Now, an initiative to fight child labour among migrant labourers

Kochi: In spite of child labour being banned, the menace is rearing its ugly head once again in the district, especially on the outskirts in Perumbavur, the hub of migrant labourers in the state. Now, an initiative aims to address the issue from the roots — at the labour camps of daily wage workers.

The campaign by the National Action and Co-ordination Group for Ending Violence Against Children (NACG) would see Child Line activists among others directly interacting with children of migrant labourers at Perumbavur and Vathuruthy labour camps before taking necessary action that includes providing them education and making them beneficiaries of government-led reformative programmes.

“We will hold indoor community meeting and direct interaction with children of migrant workers at Vathuruthy and Perumbavur on July 16 and 21 to know the extent of the problem. Thereafter, specific action plan to achieve results will be initiated. For this, we will hold a meeting with key stakeholders including government departments on July 21,” said Dr Mary Venus Joseph, dean, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, which is the NACG Kerala state unit.

The stakeholders will also include owners of plywood manufacturing units in Perumbavur Town. “We’ll also hold discussions with the parents of such children. The aim is to know about substance or any other type of abuse against the children and violence against them among others. They are the most vulnerable category. The interactions are expected to shed light on the usage drug abuse rampant among the community,” said an official of the Child Line, Ernakulam.

The initiative comes even as the labour department is chalking out certain insurance-linked schemes to woo migrants to get enrolled and the police creating a database of them. During the last five years, 1,770 cases registered in the state in which migrants were accused, mostly involving drug trafficking.