NGOs happy with child labour ban

But small eateries  may have a grouse.

The decision of the government to ban child labour has come as a victory of sorts for the NGOs.  However, industries who use child labour are seeking alternate provisions.

On Tuesday, the central government banned child labour in dhabas, hotels, resorts and spas. The ban was imposed under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 to prevent physical violence, psychological trauma and even sexual abuse of children working in these occupations. Farida Lambe, Trustee of Pratham, an NGO working for child rights, said, “We have been demanding this for a long time now. In Mumbai alone, there are 20,000 children working in various industries like domestic help, hotel and ragpicking.”

Lamba said what is needed now is political will and relentless pressure from society, so that the act can be realised in practice, “We have a Task Force in Mumbai to rescue and rehabilitate child labourers. We have rescued 80 per cent of them from zari and other industries recently.”

The Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (AHAR) took another view. Chandrahas Shetty, president of the association of hoteliers, said, “We will obviously have to comply with the law, but does the government have an alternate provision for this poor section?”

Most of them, he said, come from states like Bihar and UP and have no clothes to wear, let alone two square meals a day. According to him only 5 per cent of small hotels in the city employ children.