State, Centre urged to implement NHRC advisories

Ongole: The secretary of HELP NGO, Nimmaraju Rammohan advised the State and Central governments to announce a programme to implement the advisories issued by the National Human Rights Commission, to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded labour during the Covid-19 pandemic, as most of the child labour are rotting in bonded labour individually and along with their families.

As the World Day Against Child Labour is being observed on Saturday, Rammohan demanded that the governments take up initiatives to protect the children in bonded labour and remodel them as an asset to the future.

Rammohan mentioned that NHRC issued the advisories on May 31, 2021, about prevention, identification, rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation, and legal aid for bonded labourers along with few recommendations to the state and central governments. He said that the NHRC advised the panchayats to maintain a record of the information of locals including the details of labourers, middlemen and location of the work to track their movement.

He said the Commission also advised the district and state administrations to check on chances of trafficking, provide social security to cover the families who lost livelihood due to the pandemic. The local administrations and authorities should take measures to inspect industries and workplaces at least twice in a month to identify child labour or bonded labour and rescue them following proper health protocols, he informed.

The secretary of HELP said that the district Collector should provide immediate cash assistance of Rs 20,000 to the rescued person as per the Central Sector Scheme 2016 as part of the social security cover and take up all measures to provide a safe and healthy environment to the child labour with relevant to the government departments. He said that the NHRC advised the governments to appoint state nodal officer for rehabilitation of bonded labour and ensure immediate cash is available under district bonded labour rehabilitation fund for assistance to the released bonded labour. He said that the governments should also create a helpline number to provide immediate help to distressed labour and maintain a database of bonded labour rescues.