Our Bureau
NEW DELHI/ SHILLONG: Labour Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday stressed on the need for a complete ban on child labour in the State.
Speaking at the 45th session of the Indian Labour Conference in New Delhi, Ampareen said that the Meghalaya Government is of the view that there should be a complete ban on child labour below the age of 14 years ‘which would also be in furtherance of the Right to Education Act’.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the session attended by the labour ministers of several States.
During the session, Ampareen reminded that recently the Meghalaya Cabinet had approved the notification of the Meghalaya Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 2013 framed under Section 18(1) of the Central Act.
“A very relevant issue on labour law is child labour. The Government of India has enacted the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The said Act seeks to prohibit the engagement of children who have not completed the age of fourteen in certain employments and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employments,” Ampareen added.
On the measures to improve employment and employability, the Minister said that given the economic backwardness of the State, for several years now, Government has been virtually the sole job provider.
“With the Government jobs having reached saturation level, unemployment has become a serious problem with resultant adverse social consequences. Hence it has become imperative for the State to address this issue with utmost priority,” she said.
According to the Minister, in addressing this issue, there are some positives in Meghalaya which need to be capitalized upon.
“Being a predominantly tribal State with a matrilineal society the issues of caste and gender divisions do not arise. A noteworthy feature of our State is that the female workforce participation is very high,” she said.
Lyngdoh also said that the State enjoys demographic dividend due to high share of working age population at 53 per cent and young population (0-14 years) at 42 per cent which will be joining the work force in a few years.
The Minister told the gathering that the people have a natural tendency to excel in service sector jobs. The industry players also have special preference for North eastern youths for services such as retail, hospitality and healthcare among others.
The State also has its unique skill set in the traditional sectors of handloom, bamboo products, dry flowers, and traditional healthcare, she said.
“Employment is the prime concern in our approach paper to the 12th Five-Year Plan and the measures would be to continuously find out the sectors of economy which have high growth potential especially those which are labour intensive. Towards this goal, the State has launched the State Skill Development Mission in pursuance of the National Skill Development Policy to create skills for employment of 500 million youth in the country by the year 2022,” she added.