SHILLONG: NPP legislator James K Sangma has expressed concern over the presence of a large number of child labourers in the State.
“I would like to know on the steps taken by the Government to check this menace of child labour,” Sangma said while moving a cut motion in the Assembly on Monday.
He also recalled that the Labour Minister had made a statement before the media on August 14 last year that she is going to tackle problem with the right earnest. “But till date I have not heard about any concrete steps taken by the Labour department. We have not heard any cases of child labour being detected,” Sangma said.
Meanwhile, he expressed concern about the security and safety about the young students who are pursuing Skill Development Training Courses in various parts of the country.
“When I was in Delhi recently, a group of students who were pursuing their SKTC in Haryana came to meet me to brief about their various hardships,” the NPP legislator said.
He said that the students had to confront a situation of communal tension even though luckily the situation did not blow out of proportion.
Moreover, Sangma also suggested on the need to come up with the jobless rate statistic which would help in identifying the youth who are unwilling to work and are sitting idle at home.
On the difference between the jobless rate and the unemployment rate, the NPP legislator said that the unemployment rate is data of the educated unemployed youth who are registered with the employment office. “This jobless rate is important since the Government would need to take steps to motivate youth to get employed,” Sangma said. In reply, Labour Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the department has taken steps towards addressing the problem of child labour. She informed that the department has already filed FIRs against those people who are promoting and encourage child labour.
“We would continue with our efforts to totally eradicate this problem,” Lyngdoh said.
While referring to the demand in having a jobless rate, she said that the department has inherent mechanism to identify the various categories of youth. “We have programmes to cater to the various categories. Our main thrust was to make our youth employable,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Labour Minister asserted that the department has put in place a safety and security policy for the students who are studying outside.
“We have also put in place a 24 hour helpline number and grievance redressal cell,” she added.