Representative image.
Representative image.

A child labourer was rescued by task force on Thursday evening from Mohanbari JDFCH colony here. The 10-year-girl child, who was engaged as domestic help, was rescued from the house of Suma Rana, who works at Arunachal government Food and civil supplies department. The task force was constituted to tackle child labour in Dibrugarh district.

The Labour department has filed an FIR against the house owners at Dibrugarh police station under section 3 of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016. The rescued child has been put under the care of a children home.

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Recently the district administration had constituted a task force consisting of community leaders, anganwadi workers, social activists, NGOs, village defence parties, village headmen, locals and the police to tackle the issue of child labourers.

Dibrugarh district administration has launched major crackdown against child labour in the district. The Dibrugarh district administration had launched a childline toll free number- 1098 to deal with any complaints related to child labour. So far, seven child labourers were rescued from different locations in Dibrugarh district.

According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, a ‘child’ is defined as any person below the age of 14 and the Act prohibits employment of a child in any employment including as a domestic help. It is a cognizable criminal offence to employ a child for any work.

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Children between age of 14 and 18 are defined as ‘adolescent’ and the law allows Adolescent to be employed except in the listed hazardous occupation and processes which include mining, inflammable substance and explosives related work and any other hazardous process as per the Factories Act, 1948.

 

Avik Chakraborty is Northeast Now Correspondent in Dibrugarh. He can be reached at: [email protected]