A senior Labour Ministry official said that consultations had already taken place with the states on the issue and a notification would be issued soon. Also on the anvil is a detailed protocol that lays down procedures for repatriating migrant child workers to their homes and rehabilitating them, so that rescued children do not drift back into the workforce.

“The roles and responsibilities of the different agencies involved would be spelt out clearly. The state where children are found working and the state where they belong to and are to be sent back to, will have to work in co-ordination,” the official said. The key states where the origin and incidence of such child labour is high — Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra — are on board and the new protocol is expected to become the norm by the end of this month, the official added.

Along with these incremental steps, the Government is also working on a complete overhaul of the 1986 Act to bring it in line with evolving ground realities. States and Ministries have been making several suggestions to the Centre for amending the law. The Central Monitoring Committee for the law’s implementation has also backed the need for changing the law during its last annual meeting in June 2007. States’ views on the various proposals have already been received.

A Working Group set up by the Centre in November to finalise the amendments has already met twice and is expected to submit its report shortly. The key suggestions and proposals being examined by the group include bringing more clarity on home-based child workers as well as agricultural workers.

... contd.