Report of Bonded labour and child labour situation in UP

A periodical review of the Bonded Labour and Child Labour situation in UP with focus on the Districts of the carpet-weaving belt was carried out by the NHRC. This periodical review by the NHRC has been mandated by the Supreme Court of India vide its order dated 11.11.97. The Commission's Special Rapporteur Shri Chaman Lal visited Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadoi, Allahabad and Kanpur from 2-7 September 2005. District-wise review was e carried out at Varanasi, Bhadoi, Mirzapur and Allahabad in meetings held with the District officials associated with these issues.Separate meetings were held with the NGOs working in the field of Child Labour at Varanasi, Bhadoi, Allahabad and Mirzapur.

The State Level Review of the Child Labour and Bonded Labour situation was made in a meeting held in the office of the Labour Commissioner, UP at Kanpur on 7th September, 2004. The meeting was attended by Shri Sharda Prasad, Labour Commissioner, Shri U.P. Singh, Deputy Labour Commissioner, HQs, Shri R.K. Shukla, Labour Enforcement Officer (Bonded Labour), Shri S.K. Sinha, Welfare Supdt. (Child Labour) and Shri R.A. Sharma, Welfare Supdt. (Bonded Labour). The last review of the Child Labour and Bonded Labour situation in UP with focus on the Carpet-weaving Belt was made in his visit to this region from 12-16 March 2004. Another brief review was done at Kanpur in a meeting with the Labour Commissioner and Sr. Officers of the Labour Department on 5-6th November 2004. The reports of both the Reviews were considered by the Commission and sent demi-officially to the Chief Secretary, UP by the JS on 23rd June 2004 and 16th March 2005 respectively. The Action Taken Reports from the Government of UP are still awaited. However, the ATR in respect of the First Report (March 2004) has been sent to the Principal Secretary, Labour, UP by the Labour Commissioner, UP. This formed part of the agenda of the current review meeting. Action on most of the observations/recommendations was found to have been completed. The pending matters find mention at appropriate places in this report.

The Review presents the following picture of the Child Labour and Bonded Labour situation in UP for the period from 1.1.2004 to 30.6.2005.

BONDED LABOUR
Vigilance Committees

The last review made in November 2004 had revealed that the Vigilance Committees have been constituted at all the 70 District HQs and 292 out of a total of 297 Sub Divisional HQs. There has been no change in the situation as the Vigilance Committees are yet to be constituted at the Sub Divisional HQs Chakia and Sakaldiah (Distt. Chandoli), Kannauj Cantt. (Distt. Kannauj), Gautam Budh Nagar Cantt. and Zevar (Gautam Budh Nagar). The Labour Commissioner has been regularly reminding the State Government about the constitution of these Vigilance Committees. (The Labour Commissioner UP has informed vide his letter No. 4245/B.L (NHRC)/05 dated 22.9.2005 that Government notification in respect of constitution of these committees has been issued on 20.9.2005).

As mentioned in the last review report, the Government of UP was ordered by the Supreme Court on 5.5.04 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 3922 of 1985 - PUCL vs. State of Tamil Nadu and others to confirm constitution of the Vigilance Committees in all the Districts and the Sub Divisional by 5th November 2004. The State was also required to file the reply by the said date regarding formulation of a detailed plan for rehabilitated and released bonded labourers either by itself or with the involvement of the NGOs. The Review revealed that the State Government has not filed the affidavit (till 7 September 2005).

Identification, Release and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers

The State Government was commended in the last report for having cleared all the pending cases of rehabilitation. The Labour Commissioner, UP took special interest in arranging the Central and State Government share for rehabilitation of 398 bonded labourers identified and released till 31.3.04.
55 bonded labourers were identified and released in 2004-05 - 15 in Allahabad, 4 in Mirzapur and 36 in Aligarh. All of them were migrant labourers who went back to their native districts. Necessary action for their rehabilitation under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme from that end was duly initiated.
In the year 2005-06 (till 31.8.05), 224 bonded labourers have been identified in the State as a result of the surveys carried out using funds released by the Union Labour Ministry. 81 of them were migrant. 143 belong to UP and were required to be rehabilitated in the State. 7 of them have already been rehabilitated.

During the period 1996-97 to 2005-06, a total of 2778 bonded labourers were identified and released in UP. This includes 55 (all migrants) relating to 2004-05 and 224 (81 migrants and 143 locals) relating to 2005-06. District-wise details of identifications relating to 2005-06 are as follows:

Allahabad - 11
Ferozabad -130
Bhadoi - 62
Banda - 1
Fatehpur - 20

A total of 1053 released bonded labourers belonging to UP were required to be rehabilitated in the State. 32 bonded labourers of UP were received from other States and were required to be rehabilitated in UP. This gives a total of 1085 bonded labourers required to be rehabilitated. 120 of them have either died or become untraceable or have refused to take any assistance. Of the remaining 965, 790 have actually been rehabilitated. The position of the balance number of 175 is explained below.

Physical verification of 107 has been completed and they are available in Aligarh (64), Muzafarnagar (26), Baghpat (5), Allahabad (1), Banda (1), Bhadoi (10). A total amount of Rs. 21.40 lakh (Central and State share of Rs. 10.70 lakh each) is required. The Central share of Rs. 10.70 lakh has been released and is being disbursed to the Districts concerned. As part of the State share, Rs. 8.00 lakh have been released and allotted to the Districts concerned.

68 bonded labourers are required to be rehabilitated at places other than the place of their identification. This requires physical verification of 18 of them in Urai (Jalun), 1 in Sonebhadra, 46 in Hamirpur and 3 in Hardoi. After the verification is completed, steps for their rehabilitation will be started. The Labour Commissioner assured that rehabilitation of these persons would be completed shortly.
The rehabilitation of the released bonded labourers is receiving good attention from the Labour Commissioner and his team of enthusiastic officers as before.

Funds to the tune of Rs. 10 lakhs were received for survey of bonded labour in October 2001 but actually made available towards the end of 2003. The Survey was taken up in the Districts of Mirzapur, Allahabad, Kannauj, Meerut and Gautam Budh Nagar. Although the results of this Survey were not satisfactory, (only 7 bonded labourers were identified in Mirzapur), a saving of Rs. 6.02.291 was effected. It is worth appreciating that the Labour Commissioner, UP has, after obtaining permission from the Union Labour Ministry, used Rs. 6.00 lakh out of the saved amount for carrying out similar surveys in 4 Districts namely Sidharth Nagar, Basti, Bhadoi, Sonebhadra and Banda. These surveys have resulted in detection of 63 bonded labourers -- 62 in Bhadoi and 1 in Banda. It is proposed to take up the survey of bonded labourers in District Chitrakoot, Varanasi, Kaushmbi, Ferozabad and Kanput City in this year. Financial assistance is being sought from the Union Labour Ministry.

The Government of UP had received a grant of Rs. 10 lakh for awareness generation. The grant has been utilized carefully and efficiently on Radio/TV programmes, Publication of a Booklet on Bonded Labour, Staging of Nukkad Nataks etc. as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Labour and Utilisation Certificate has been submitted to the Government of India.
A grant of Rs. 5 lakh was received from the Government of India for Evaluation Studies in Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Mathura, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra. Studies were conducted by Giri Vikas Adhyan Sansthan Lucknow (Varanasi and Chitrakoot), Academy of Management Studies Lucknow (Mathura) and the Institute of Tourism Studies, Lucknow University (Mirzapur and Sonebhadra). A summary of the findings of these surveys received from the Labour Commissioner, UP in December 2004 was discussed in the Review meeting. The common findings of these studies listed below will be found revealing in understanding the phenomenon of bonded labour in UP.



Magnitude of the Study

Name of the District Number of rehabilitatedBonded Labourers whose particulars were furnished to the Institute Number of Rehabilitated Bonded Labourers detected and interviewed
Mathura 10 7
Chitrakoot 65 40
Varanasi 21 18
Mirzapur 105 68
Sonebhadra 142 100
TOTAL 343 233

· Almost 100% of the released bonded labourers have rural background. Over 80% of them are landless labourers.
· Most of the released bonded labourers were employed as agricultural labourers.
· Indebtedness was the pre-dominant case of bondage.
· Representation of SC,ST and OBC classes ranges from 83% (Varanasi and Mirzapur) to 100% (Mathura). Mulims constituted 12.9% of the total number.
· The level of illiteracy was found to be ranging from 65 to 81%.
· Proportion of released bonded labourers enjoying the facility of drinking water was 47% in Mathura, 39% in Varanasi, 47.07% in Mirzapur and 81% in Sonebhadra.
· Availability of electricity was 4.41% in Mirzapur, 13% in Chitrakoot, 44% in Varanasi and 95% in Sonebhadra. Evaluation report on Mathura conducted by the Academy of Management Study, Lucknow is silent on this aspect. Even otherwise findings of Mathura study -one 7 released members, six belonging to one family cannot be considered very reliable.
· The average monthly income before release was Rs. 250 to Rs. 300. It is seen to have doubled after rehabilitation.
· Over 90% have denied any problem of harassment with the erstwhile employer.
· All released bonded labourer were detected as bonded labourer at stone quarries, carpet looms or brick kilns.
· Assistance under the Centrally sponsored scheme was provided wholly in cash in three Districts namely Sonebhadra, Varanasi and Mathura in contravention of the guidelines issued by the Union Labour Ministry.
· Findings are general and vague about benefits provided to the released bonded labourers under Indira Awas Yojna and other Social Security and Weflare Schemes. This aspect has been covered properly only in studies in Sonebhadra and Mirzapur.
· Although a number of rehabilitated bonded labourers stated that there has been a qualitative improvement in their life, it is not supported by the information about their monthly average income which is less than 3000 per family with an average size of six members.
· Influential persons of the community mentioned that prosecution of employers of bonded labourers has remained neglected. They have also expressed the need for increase in the rehabilitary grant.

Prosecution
A total of 231 prosecutions have been launched under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976 since 1996-97 (up to 30th June, 2005) 155 of these pertain to the Districts of the Carpet Belt. Mirzapur tops the list with 64 followed by Allahabad (32) and Bhadoi (30). Only 6 cases have been decided so far - all in acquittal. Prosecution has been totally ignored in the past and has only recently been considered necessary. The Labour Commissioner, UP was requested to send full details of pending prosecutions giving the date of identification and release of bonded labour, date of FIR, date of filing of charge-sheet, name of the Court and present status of the case. This will be helpful in effectively monitoring the prosecution of offenders.

CHILD LABOUR

As mentioned in my last report on visit to Kanpur on 5-6th November 2004, the identification of Child Labour has totally stopped in UP following the issuing of a single line directive by the Government on 29th August 2003 declaring the end of the "Inspector Raj" in the State. However, the Government has modified its order in December 2004 and allowed inspections of Factories and Establishments on receipt of specific information about violation of labour laws after obtaining permission from the competent authority. This does not seem to have helped the situation at all as regards Child Labour. While the interaction with the NGOs at various places gave me to understand that the employment of children in both hazardous and non-hazardous categories has shown substantial increase during the last 2-3 years, which was also supported by figures of detection till August 2003, the detection of Child Labour is practically Nil in the State after the said directive came into force. The situation has undergone no change since the issuing of the revised instructions. During the period 1.4.2004 to 31.3.2005, only 4 children were identified employed in non-hazardous occupations/processes in the entire State. Detection in respect of hazardous category was Nil. In the current year (1.4.05 to 30.6.05), 30 children have been identified employed in hazardous (Carpet-weaving) in District Bhadoi in the entire State. With this, the number of children identified in UP since the Survey of 1997 ordered by the Supreme Court comes to:
Hazardous - 29752
Non-hazardous - 35997
Total - 65749

Educational Rehabilitation of Detected Children
24261 out of a total of 29752 children identified in hazardous occupations have been admitted to Formal or non-Formal System of Schooling. This gives a fairly satisfactory percentage of 82.7%. In the non-hazardous category, it comes to 89.2%. Excluding the number of children belonging to migrant families, (8210), only 797 out of a total of 65749 that is 1.2% have not been admitted to Schools. Although the picture can be described as too good to be true and does not take into account the actual retention of these children in Schools after enrolment, with the efforts of the Labour and Education Department, the overall situation of education of identified child labourers in the State has certainly shown some improvement during the period of review.

Economic Rehabilitation of Affected Families
The number of affected families in respect of total detection of 29752 children employed in hazardous work (till 30 June 2005) is 24233. Of these, only 4962 ie. 16.67% have actually been provided some rehabilitation in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court. Of the remaining, 7384 families have been shown as already rehabilitated, 5441 unwilling to take assistance available under the Normal Schemes and 5662 migrant families. This leaves a balance of 784 families which need rehabilitation. It is worth mentioning that the number of families awaiting rehabilitation was 2303 in the last Review made in March 2004. A number of pending cases of rehabilitation are reported to have been cleared during the period of Review.

Recoveries from Offending Employers
The number of employers involved in the total detection of 29752 children in hazardous work is 10,741. 7877 prosecutions have been launched against the employers since the First Survey of 1996-97 ordered by the Supreme Court. 7176 R.Cs have been issued for recovering a total amount of Rs. 32,40,60,000. 1471 R.Cs have been stayed by the Court, 1406 have been quashed/returned. A total amount of Rs. 1,03,49,632 has been collected which includes Rs.8,29,783 collected after the last Review (March, 2004). The total collection in the Districts of the Carpet Belt is Rs. 15,38,164 (14.86%). The statement received from the Labour Commissioner, UP shows that a total of Rs. 14,00,06,225 is recoverable against R.Cs, which have neither been stayed, nor quashed/returned. The number of these R.Cs could not be furnished. Special efforts need to be made to settle these R.Cs, which have not been contested and are pending execution. The Labour Commissioner was advised to write to the D.Ms in this connection.

Prosecution
A total of 10916 prosecutions have been launched under the Child Labour Act till 30th June 2005. This includes 3039 of pre-December 1996 period. A total of 2213 of these have been decided so far - 369 in conviction and 1844 in acquittal. This gives a conviction rate of 16.67%. However, the conviction rate during the last two years has been nearly zero percent. A total of 8703 cases are pending trial.

NCLP Schools
The National Child Labour Project was initially extended to three Districts of UP viz Aligarh, Ferozabad and Varanasi in 1988-89. It was further extended to Allahabad, Moradabad, Khurja (Bulandshehar), Mirzapur and Bhadoi in 1999. Saharanpur and Kanpur city were brought under this project in 1999-2000 and Azamgarh in 2001. However, the Child Labour schools were actually started in Aligarh and Ferozabad in 1995-96 and at other places from March 99 onwards after the NHRC started monitoring the Child Labour situation.
A total of 496 Schools against a sanction of 530 were in operation in 11 Districts at the time of last review in March 2004. The number of children attending these schools was 24,457. The number of schools has since gone up to 1089.
15 additional Districts (Agra, Bareily, Gazipur, Jaunpur, Sonebhadra, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Itawah, Mau , Rampur, Lucknow, Basti, Deoriah and Banda) were brought under NCLP in February 2004. 512 additional Schools have started functioning in these Districts. The survey work has been completed in Districts Basti and Banda and schools will be opened after sanction is received. As the survey in the District Deoriah did not reveal any sizeable number of actual/potential child labour, the Labour Commissioner has proposed substitution of Deoriah with Bijnore. Decision from the Union Labour Ministry is awaited.
In October 2004, 21 more Districts of UP have been brought under the NCLP. These are: Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Faizabad, Gonda, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Behraich, Sravasti, Badayun, Unnao, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Rai Bareily, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sidharthnagar, Hardoi, Muzafarnagar and Etah. Project societies have been formed in all the Districts. Funds to undertake survey have been received for 20 Districts (Rs. 4,58,500 each District). It is awaited only in respect of Etah. Survey of targeted beneficiaries has been completed in 14 Districts. Sanction to start the following Schools (50 students each) has also been received for the following Districts:
Fatehpur - 39 schools
Pratapgarh - 39 schools
Faizabad - 44 schools
Lakhimpur Kheri - 29 schools
Sitapur - 30 schools

Sanction is awaited for the remaining 9 Districts. Survey is yet to be started in six districts namely Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sidharthnagar, Hardoi and Muzafarnagar.
With the operationalisation of all the sanctioned projects, 47 Districts out of a total of 70 in UP will be covered under the NCLP to benefit 54450 actual/potential child labourers. Out of a total of 1089 child labour schools now being run in 23 districts of UP, 347 have been brought under the Indus Child Labour Project.
INDO-US DOL PROJECT
Five districts of UP namely Moradabad, Ferozabad, Aligarh, Allahabad and Kanpur (City) have been selected for the INDO-US DOL Project which aims at complete elimination of the worst form of the child labour identified in these Districts. The project envisages detection of 4000 children in each District. 1000 children will be identified in the 5-8 years age group and mainstreamed by admission to formal or non-formal school for primary education under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. 2000 child labourers identified in the age group of 9-13 years will be educated in 40 Transitional Education Centres (TEC) run on the NCLP lines. 1000 child labourers identified in 14-17 years of age group will be targeted for Employment Oriented Vocational Training.
The INDUS Child Labour Project is being operationalized under the overall monitoring by the State Level Committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Labour). Aligarh Muslim University, Lucknow University and the Govind Vallabh Pant Institute for Social Sciences Allahabad were engaged for survey in these Districts. The State Resource Centre has been established in the Office of the Labour Commissioner, UP for the conduct supervision and direction of the project in five Districts.
The project has been operationalised on 1.9.2004 in Moradabad, Aligarh and Ferozabad and on 1.6.2005 in Allahabad and Kanpur (city).
In the age group of 5-8 years, a total of 17,985 child labourers have been identified in these Districts with girls (7009) constituting 38.97% of the total. 11,618 (64.59%) of these are non-school going children. 6598 out of them have been admitted to the Primary Schools.
In the 9-13 age group, a total of 30735 child labourers have been identified, 17,893 (58.20%) are non-school going children. The project provides for admission of 10,000 children to TECs (2000 each District). However, the actual numbers of children admitted to these schools are:

Aligarh - 2685 children in 62 schools
Allahabad - 2050 children in 41 schools
Ferozabad - 5459 children in 114 schools
Kanpur (city) - 1554 children in 40 schools
Moradabad - 2768 children in 90 schools

Total: - 14516 children in 347 schools
In the 14-17 age group, a total of 22,302 children have been identified. 17,313 ie. 77.62% of them are non-school going children. 1250 children each have been finally identified in Aligarh, Allahabad, Ferozabad and Moradabad on the basis of Beneficiaries Targeting System (BTS) for Employment Oriented Vocational Training. Information in respect of Kanpur city has not been furnished. It has been planned to run Vocational Training Centres in the traditional sector in Districts Aligarh, Allahabad and Moradabad by the Project Society. Lock-making and Hardware have been decided for Aligarh, Sculpture, Carpet weaving, Motor repairing, Hand-pump repairing for Allahabad and Scanning. Pattern designing, Fabricating, Chipping and Emery work for Moradabad. Vocational Training Centres have been started by Dr. Reddy Foundation in IETS, Hospitality and CRS from June 2005 in Allahabad and Kanpur city only. The progress is certainly slow.

DISTRICT REPORTS
VARANASI
The Bonded Labour and Child Labour situation in Districts Varanasi and Jaunpur was reviewed in a meeting attended by the district officials and 32 out of a total of 33 NGOs involved in the running of NCLP schools in Varanasi.

CHILD LABOUR
Shri D.K. Kanchan, Additional Labour Commissioner, Varanasi and Shri D.K. Singh, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Varanasi presented the Child Labour situation. There has been no detection of child labour in hazardous or non-hazardous category in this district in 2004-05. The same situation continues in the current year. In the last review made on 12 March, 2004, detection of 31 children in hazardous and 31 in non-hazardous category was mentioned. The total detection in 2003-04 came to 69 in hazardous and 55 in non-hazardous category. With this, the total number of children withdrawn from hazardous and non-hazardous occupations/processes in this district since the survey of 1996-97 is 1703 and 711 respectively. 1092 children withdrawn from hazardous and 591 from non-hazardous category were admitted to schools. Of the remaining, 687 children belong to migrant families. As such, only 44 children out of a total of 2414 (1.8%) could not be admitted to schools. However, these figures cannot be accepted at face value, as it has not been ascertained as to how many of such children continued to study after they were admitted to schools by efforts of the district officials.
The number of affected families relating to the withdrawal of 1703 children from hazardous occupations/processes is 1583. Only 158 of these (9.28%) have been received some rehabilitatory assistance. 493 families were already having some employment, 270 are reported to have refused any help, and 593 families belong to migrant labourers. As such, 69 families remain to be rehabilitated.
805 RCs for collecting a total amount of Rs. 2,20,00,000 from 1187 employers at the rate of Rs.20,000 per child have been issued. The actual recovery is Rs. 3,99,152 (1.8%). Of this, Rs. 57,152 has been collected after the last review. 155 RCs have been stayed and 76 returned/cancelled.
A total of 941 prosecutions have been launched under the Child Labour Act in this district till 30 June, 2005. Of this, 94 pertain to pre-December, 1996 period. 235 of these have been decided till 30 June 2005 - 131 in conviction and 204 acquittal. 606 cases are pending in courts. The conviction rate of 55.74 % is commendable.

NCLP SCHOOLS
National Child Labour Project (NCLP) was extended to Varanasi in 1999 with sanction of 10 schools. 30 additional schools were sanctioned in 2001-02 and another 30 in 2005-06. A total of 70 schools of 50 students each are now sanctioned for this district. Presently, 40 schools holding 2000 students are being run by 33 NGOs. Girls (1197) out number boys (803). OBC account for 39.9 %, SC 21.5 % and minorities 38.1 % of the total strength of 2000 children with only 14 (7 %) belonging to general category. Since 1999, a total of 2500 children have benefited from these schools. 2480 (92.2 %) passed class 5th examination and 2310 out of them i.e. 93 % were main-streamed by getting them admitted to class 6th. Only 19 children have dropped out of 2500 initially admitted.
An important feature of the execution of the National Child Labour Project is the Life Insurance Cover arranged for 1748 guardians wit-h annual premium of Rs. 100/-. Six of them died during the period of the Project. Families of three of them have received the insurance premium. Three claims submitted on 29.3.05 to L.I.C. are being processed. Delay in submission of claims to the L.I.C. is noticed. While initiation is commended, the submission of claims should not have taken so long.

MEETING WITH NGOs
I interacted with the representatives of the NGOs involved in the running of NCLP schools. 32 out of 33 NGOs were represented. The interaction proved useful in identifying the following problems:
a) Delay in receipt of grant -. The NGOs were unanimous about the delay in receipt of financial grant to run schools. This was also confirmed by visit to schools. Although no compliant was made, it was not difficult to feel the sense of unhappiness of teachers and staff who have not been paid wages since December, 2004. What makes it all the more objectionable is that the grant from the Union Labour Ministry has been received to clear all liabilities upto September, 2005. Detailed discussion with the Additional Labour Commissioner and the ALC revealed that a lot of time is taken in the DM's office to process these cases. The delay can be seen from the following:

S.No. Financial year Date of receipt of grant from the Govt. of India Date of release of grant to NGOs
1. 2002-03 Ist Instalment - 27.6.2002.2nd Instalment - 4.3.2003 2.9.200231.3.2003
2. 2003-04 Ist Instalment - 10.11.20032nd Instalment - 23.1.2004 27.11.200324.3.2004
3. 2004-05 Ist Instalment - 14.7.20042nd Instalment - 14.10.2004 8.11.20043.1.2005
4. 2005-06 1st Instalment - 18.4.20052nd Instalment - 30.7.2005 28.7.2005Not yet
(b) Health cover to NCLP schools - Instructions have been issued by the D.M. assigning the responsibility to the nearest Health Centre for the periodical medical check up of the children attending the NCLP schools. The visit to the schools revealed that this arrangement is not functioning efficiently. This was also noticed during the last visit in March 2004 and the D.M was requested to take remedial action. The situation seems to have deteriorated further. The Additional Labour Commissioner informed that the responsibility for medical check up is now being given to the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Dr. Bina Singh, Medical Officer, ESIC was present in the meeting. She informed that health camps have recently been held at some schools. She was requested to arrange eye-check up of all the students attending NCLP schools in the district.
(3) Opening of accounts in Post Office Banks - Some NGOs expressed difficulties being faced in the opening of the accounts for disbursement of stipends. Additional Labour Commissioner was requested to bring it to the notice of the D.M., who is ultimately responsible for the efficient execution of the NCLP.

It was distressing to learn from the NGOs that the incidence of child labour is showing increase in both hazardous and non-hazardous categories. Children are still being employed in large numbers in family establishments engaged in Saree weaving. There is a visible increase in the number of children working in wayside hotels and automotive-garages.

I visited four NCLP schools of this district. My observations are given below:


1. NCLP School Jamapur Pindra
This school being run by Sarvjanik Vidayalya Samiti was started on 16.11.04 with 18 boys and 32 girls. 30 children belong to OBC, 7 to SC and 13 to Minority category. The school has been rightly sited in an area of concentration of carpet weaving, silk making and Brick-kiln industries. Selection of beneficiaries appears to be all right. There has been no case of dropout. All the 50 students were present on the day of the visit. The average daily attendance is above 95%. Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) is being provided as per a weekly menu drawn with a lot of concern. Children are being supplied tasty and nutritious food such as Khichri, Puri Subzi, Dalia, Halwa, Fruits and Egg. Although the accommodation is sufficient, the entire campus is poorly lit. Medical examination being neglected. There has been no visit of the Doctor since the schools was started. In the last session of 3 years, run at the same place, the Medical Officer has visited only once. Vocational training is being imparted in pickle making and food preservation in a very half-hearted manner. Vocational training does not seem to have received proper attention. Honorarium to staff has been paid up to March 2005.

Since the children's accounts in Post Office/Bank have not been opened till now, stipend money released to the NGO has not actually been paid to the beneficiaries. This is objectionable. Shri D.K. Singh, ALC and Project Director informed that budget has been received from the Government of India up to September 2005. Funds will be released within 15 days.

2. NCLP School Basani, Baragaon
This school run by Yuva Gramin Vikas Samiti was started on 16.11.2004 with 21 boys and 29 girls. Shri Ajay Singh, Secretary of the organization was present. As many as 5 children dropped-out necessitating fresh admission. The school has been rightly sited in the area of concentration of Sari Industry and selection of beneficiaries (OBC: 8, SCs: 9 and Minorities: 33) is satisfactory. 46 students were present on the day of the visit. The daily average attendance is around 90%.

SNP is being run efficiently. Vocational Training needs more attention.

Medical examination of children was started from February 2005. The Doctor has visited the school on 2.2.05, 27.7.05 and 31.8.05. However, no case requiring detailed examination and specialist treatment has been detected. The honorarium to staff has been paid up to March 2005. Although stipend money has also been released up to March, it has not been paid to the beneficiaries as their accounts in Post Offices/Banks are yet to be opened.

3. NCLP School Alaipur
This school run by Arpan Sanstha was started on 16.11.04 with 20 boys and 30 girls. Six girls dropped out necessitating fresh admissions. 6