Thursday 12 June 2014

SOCIAL PROTECTION: COMBAT CHILD LABOUR!

To commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour 2014, NCPCR, UNICEF and ILO organized four Zonal Round Table Conferences across India that will culminate in a National Meeting on 12 June 2014 in New Delhi.

Commemorated on June 12 each year, the World Day Against Child Labour calls the world’s attention to the plight of millions of children, girls and boys around the world who are exploited by child labour. Every child has the right to grow up in a safe and nurturing environment protected from harm and given every opportunity to realize his or her potential- a reality yet to be fulfilled for many children.

The theme for 2014 is extend social protection: combat child labour. It draws attention to the role of social protection in keeping children out of child labour and removing them from it. Social protection is both a human right and makes sound economic and social sense. Social protection enables access to education, health care and nutrition and plays a critical role in the fight against child labour.

In India, the NCPCR, UNICEF and ILO have been collaborating since 2009 to jointly commemorate the day. For 2014, four zonal round table conference were convened across North, South, East and West regions of India which would culminate in a National Convention on 12 June 2014 in New Delhi.

The Zonal Round Table Conferences anchored on the Social Protection Floor and its social security guarantees, one of which refers to income security for children. The Zonal Conferences reviewed the progress made during the past year on the elimination of child labour and came up with conclusions and recommendations on the areas to improve and extend social protection. Awareness and access to social security schemes and a life cycle approach where schemes are sustainable and are developed in a continuum for the child, adolescent, youth, adult and old age with focus on vulnerable sections and people with disabilities was discussed. The deliberations echoed the recommendations of the World Report on Social Protection released by ILO on 3 June 2014.

The National Convention would focus on a panel discussion of experts from international organizations and Government to dilate the need for social protection as a key part of national strategies to tackle child labour in addition to deliberating on the recommendations from the zonal conferences.

The participants would include National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights; Central and State Departments of Labour, WCD and Education; Employers Organizations; Workers Organizations; Civil Society / NGOs; Academia, UNICEF and ILO.

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Sonia Sarkar

Communication Officer (Media) , UNICEF India

Tel (+91) 9810170289,9891861445;

Email: ssarkar@unicef.org

United Nations Children’s Fund

UNICEF House, 73 Lodi Estate, New Delhi,