New Delhi: The National Child Labour Project (NCLP) scheme for rehabilitation of child labour is presently approved for 270 districts in 20 states of the country, Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Vishnu Deo Sai in a written reply said the government was implementing this scheme in the area of high concentration of child labour.
"Government is implementing NCLP scheme for rehabilitation of child labour in the area of high concentration. At present the scheme is approved for 270 districts in 20 states of the country through approximately 6,000 special training centres with enrolment of about 2.80 lakh children," Sai said.
He said under the scheme, funds are released to the district project societies headed by district magistrates who in turn allocate the fund for special training centres run by NGOs, government or local agencies.
According to figures, the scheme is approved in 47 districts in Uttar Pradesh and 27 districts of Rajasthan making it the highest among other states.
Replying to another question, the minister said according to figures of grants released under NCLP in 2014-15 (upto July 8 this year), Maharashtra has been allocated the maximum of Rs 287.02 lakh while Rs 241 lakh has been allocated to Tamil Nadu.
He said Rs 220 lakh has been allocated to Odisha, Rs 210 lakh has been allocated to Madhya Pradesh till July 8, 2014, while a total of Rs 32,03,553 grant has been released to NGOs in 2013-14 under Grant in Aid (GIA) scheme, no funds have been released under GIA scheme during 2014-15.
The minister said that a total of 64,050 children have been brought to mainstream in 2013-14 against 1,25,716 in 2011-12.
In reply to a separate question, the minister said in 2013, 8,776 violations under child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 were detected in which 2,567 were prosecuted and 828 convictions were done.
The minister said as per 2001 census, a total number of working children in the age group of 5-14 years was 1.26 crore out of which 12 lakh were found working in hazardous occupations.
As per census 2011, the total number of working children in the same age group was 43.53 lakh which is a reduction of 65 per cent, Sai said.
