Aarti Dhar Audit says 1,210 children slogging as labourers in 8 zones Nearly 50 per cent of the child labour in the country is in to employment due to poverty and debt burden of their families, says a social audit on child labour. Problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence, financial bankruptcy, sudden deaths or crippling of parents and desertions were the reasons for children to quit education and take up work, the audit by World Vision India said.

M. Gunasekaran Action follows an alert by BBC Exporters in Tirupur shocked TIRUPUR: The sudden action by the British bargain retail chain, Primark, of firing three knitwear exporters of Tirupur for engaging child workers for embroidery and sequin work has come as a shock to the exporting community of the textile city. The retail chain, which has been sourcing garments from over 50 vendors here for the last two decades, acted on an alert by BBC.

Of the 152 developing countries, 57 will not reach the millennium development goal of putting all primary-aged children in school by 2015, the latest global monitoring reports of Education for All (EFA) and International Labour Organization (ILO) has said. Incidentally, June 12 was observed as

Even as the Delhi government conducts seminars and brainstorming ses

The high maternal and infant mortality rate prevalent in Assam is a matter of grave concern. Notwithstanding some positive interventions made at government level, both the indices

The draft National Child Labour Policy, which was circulated for opinions from the stakeholders, will soon be placed before the Council of Advisers for approval, said Labour and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal yesterday. "I believe once approved the policy will contribute to the elimination of child labour both in government and private institutions,' he added. The adviser was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a national seminar titled 'Eradication of hazardous child labour' organised by labour and employment ministry at Biam auditorium in the city.

India has the world's largest number of child labourers even today. The five-hour drive from Coimbatore to Munnar through the picturesque ghats could have been a visual treat but for the brief meeting with Mithailal Tikri at a tea shop, just half an hour into the journey.

More than 80,000 children in the age group of 9-18 years work in cottonseed farms of Gujarat and most of them are from the tribal areas of Rajasthan. The children are recruited through middlemen and are forced to stay on in farms -- many of which are run by MNCs -- for two to three months.

With the United States persistently pursuing India to act against the use of child labour in industry, the government may soon hold a public hearing to collect information on child labour, particularly in export units. The move comes following a recent request by the US department of labour to Indian authorities to convene a public hearing to gather information on use of child and forced labour, official sources said.

China said Wednesday that it had broken up a child labor ring that provided children from poor, inland areas with work in booming coastal cities, acknowledging that severe labor abuses extended into the heart of its export economy.