TNN

Bangalore, Oct 10: A day before the official ban on employing children as domestic labourers comes into force, the HRD ministry has made it clear that the onus of rehabilitating the rescued children lies not just with the labour department but with the education department.

The ministry has directed the states to ensure that the children who have been withdrawn from work get access to schooling facility immediately.

"While the responsibility of enforcement of the amendment banning employment of child labour in these occupations would be with the labour department, the challenge to provide flexible/regular schooling for them as soon as they are withdrawn from work, should be squarely with the education department and more specifically with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan," joint secretary, department of elementary education and literacy at the HRD ministry Subhas C Khuntia has said in a letter to primary and secondary education secretary T M Vijaybhaskar.

On its part, the SSA has written to all deputy commissioners (DCs) to alert them whenever a child is rescued so that action can be taken to educate them.

"We are all set to implement the ban. All rescued children will go through a residential bridge course where all facilities will be extended to them.

Though we are in the middle of the academic year, through various interventions including tent schools, mobile schools, we will ensure that no child will be deprived of schooling," SSA state project director L K Ateeq told The Times of India on Monday.

The HRD ministry has also asked states to make use of other child labour projects to aid children who are pulled out of work.

"The National Child Labour Project schools and the Indus project interventions would also play a major role in providing access to these children.

The ministry of labour has planned zonal conferences for sensitisation of stake-holders on the issue of prohibition of employment of children as domestic servants and in dhabhas/hotels/teashops/hotels and restaurants," Khuntia said.