World Day against Child Labour 2021 observed

Bhubaneswar(12/06/2021): Child labour has devastating consequences for a child’s education, skills acquirement and ability to overcome the vicious circle of poverty, incomplete education and fewer job opportunities.

Additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19, combined with income losses among vulnerable families, puts children at even greater risk, said guests and speakers at the state level webinar on the theme for the year “Act Now: Stop Child Labour” organized by People’s Cultural Centre (PECUC) in association with Odisha State Commission for Protectionof Child Rights (OSCPCR) & Labour and ESI Departmentm Government of Odisha.

Addressing this webinar, Sandhyabati Pradhan, Chairperson, Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Right (OSCPCR) said, “COVID19 pandemic situation has aggravated the child labour situation.

With school closed children are being forced to join the labourforce.

To prevent this situation we need to work together.” Dr N.Thirumala Naik, Labour Commissioner, Odisha stated that as per recent ILO report there is increasing trend of child labour world over due to COVID 19 pandemic and it has now became a bigger challenges to overcome.

But by working together and by creating awareness we can overcome this situation. Ranjan Kumar Mohanty, Secretary PECUC & Chairperson NACG EVAC, India gave the introductory remark, and stated that we are passing through a situation when Covid 19 pandemic threatens to reverse years of progress in tackling child labour. He said, “We need to do deep analysis of the situation and impact and develop strategies for achieving our goal to make Odisha a child labour free state.” Dr Minakshi Panda, Chairperson of PECUC presided over the webinar and Anuradha Mohanty, Executive Director of PECUC gave the welcome address & moderated the webinar. Addressing this webinar Bimal Kumar Sahoo, Director @ Indo- German Focal Point- Prevention & Social Security For India, DGUV & Former Insurance Commissioner, ESIC, Ministry of Labour said to face the situation we need to implement the Act strictly, promote vaccination, education and poverty alleviation. Pritikanta Panda, State Programme Manager, Odisha State Child Protection Society, Bhubaneswar said about various schemes and programmes of the State Govt ,and different mechanism to protect children specifically taking care of children who have lost their parents during COVID pandemic.

Neha Naidu, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF said, “Due to COVID 19 pandemic many have lost their livelihood, many children have lost their parents and children are unable to go to school.

We have to accept the challenge in order to overcome it and prevention has to be the main strategy .We need to see that no child remain out of school.” Dr B.B.Acharya, senior technical consultant, Department of Labour & ESI told that the COVID pandemic has brought new challenges before us and hence we need to come out with appropriate strategies for elimination of child labour.

Dr Acharya also mentioned that funds are available for rescue and rehabilitation of child labour at district level which can be utilized for rehabilitation purpose. Participants including, CSOs from different districts of Odisha, women PRI members, youth group members, children group members, SMC members, media and teachers participated in this webinar.

A video compiling the message given by the children from different parts of Odisha was also shared in this webinar.

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