Criticizing the current child labour law, Sathyarthi said: "The present law is useless. It is difficult to enforce such a law. We need a strong law to eradicate child labour."
Child rights activist and Nobel peace prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who was present in Mumbai on Tuesday, spoke to DNA about several issues, including female genital mutilation (FGM).
Talking about the issue, Satyarthi said: "Cultural barriers globally imposed on children in the name of religion must stop. In FGM, rights and dignity of children, especially young girls come under risk." He also said that "such practices in the longer run can be hazardous in a lot of ways and progressive leaders must speak out against it".
Criticizing the current child labour law, Sathyarthi said: "The present law is useless. It is difficult to enforce such a law. We need a strong law to eradicate child labour."
He added: "The proposal should not have any kind of exceptions even if it is working for the family or working after school hours and vacation. There should be a blanket ban."
When asked about what were his suggestions against the amendments, he said: "There need to be specific programmes and schemes. We also need a dedicated court for children and juvenile justice. Not only that, we need quality education and as I mentioned earlier, we need not give exceptions at all."
Satyarthi also spoke about the sorry state of the children who are rescued from hazardous working conditions. "The state of the childrens' homes are pathetic, the government needs to have a system which can regulate it and needs to invest more on it to make it more child-friendly."
Talking about his further initiatives against child labour, he said: "We are talking to position leaders. We've also had a few meetings with the prime minister and also given a few suggestions to the amendments to the labour minister too, they have agreed to review it."
When asked about several arguments saying that a lot of these children are sole bread earners of the families, he said: "Unfortunately, India has a larger number of children whose parents are unemployed parents. So, the government needs to ensure that people get employment."
About development of India, Satyarthi said: "Make in India was a phenomenal project. However, if we are looking at foreign investors, we need to also have a clear supply chain or else, the investors will have to face a clear backslash."
Further, talking about the budget this year and allocation of funds for children Satyarthi said, "This year also, there has been a raise of only 3.6% which is unjustifiable we are looking at development and we cannot merely have only a nominal raise for the children who are the future of this country."
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