Udupi: Officials check for child labour in Manipal, find kids out of school

Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SM)

Udupi, Jul 15: The officials of district labour and education departments on Monday July 15 inspected a migrant labourers' colony in the premises of Manipal University, based on a complaint that child labour was going on there.

The colony has about 1,016 labourers working for 14 contractors. They hail from places like Andhra Pradesh, Bagalkot, Bihar and others.

Sources said that there are about 70 children among them, however, the officials put the number at 40, out of which 20 were found to be school dropouts and the background of others was being checked.

The officials confirmed that no child labour was going on, and that the children were staying with parents. However, none of them was enrolled in school. One of the major problems that has kept them away from schools is that they do not know the local language, sources said.

Speaking to daijiworld, Prabhakar of the labour department, who was part of the raid, said, "About two back we received a complaint that child labour was going on here, but there is no such case. However, there are children aged between 6 to 14 years who do not go to school and play all the time while their parents work."

Nagaraj of the education department speaking to daijiworld reiterated that no incident of child labour had taken place and that 20 children who should have been in schools were not getting education. "Regarding the rest of the children, we will check details like their age, language and so on and the decide on the future course of action," he said.

"We are planning to provide temporary education facilities to the children, such as conducting special training based on their native language, concentrating on reading, writing, and speaking skills. After 3-6 months of training, we will enrol them in regular schools," he informed.

DDPI Nagendra Madhyastha told daijiworld, "In Manipal there are two to three schools. We are planning to give the children basic education and are working out ways to provide effective education further."

On problems that hinder mirant children''s education, he said, "The problem with migrant labourers is that they do not stay in any place for long. Even if the children are put in schools, they stay only as long as construction work goes on, and then again migrate to another place. This way, the children are forced to discontinue their studies, and there is no permanent solution for this. However, as this is our area, we will do all we can to help them get education."

He added, "Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is ready to coordinate with us. The management will talk to the contractors and get information about the children. Basic facilities like shelter and place for holding classes will be arranged by MAHE through the contractors. It will be done in a systematic manner."