Even as the Gujarat government claims the success of its various schemes in eliminating child labour while increasing the enrolments in schools across the state, the government’s ‘State Action Plan for Elimination of Child Labour 2009’ dossier presents a contrary figure.

Prepared by the Department of Labour and Employment, the dossier, which is marked ‘For Internal Circulation Only’, presents a contrasting picture relating to the drop-out percentages for Class VI and VII.

The dossier states that the drop-out rate for Classes VI and VII, which was 6.69 per cent in 2005-06, increased to 7.05 per cent in 2006-07 and showed a marginal drop to 6.89 per cent in 2007-08.

In the document, the government also acknowledges that the ‘the problem of child labour is directly linked to drop-out’. It adds: “The rate of drop-out from Class VI and VII is very high, and these dropout children are mostly child labourers.” In effect, the problem of drop-out and child labour are inter-connected, it says.

The dossier also quotes a graph of drop-out rate in Gujarat, adding: “It indicates that new schemes are successful up to some extent, but are unable to prevent drop-out in Class VI and VII, who are surely child labourers. In the last three years, the rate of drop-out is constantly around seven.’

Interestingly, similar findings are also revealed in a booklet – ‘Action plan for Development of Training Material on Elimination of Child Labour’, prepared by the Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute, Ahmedabad, and sponsored by INDUS Child Labour Project, International Labour Organization.

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