Labour Commissioner, J&K and Secretary to Government, Information Department Dr Abdul Rashid on Friday inaugurated 2-day workshop on state level consultation for development of J&K state Action Plan for prevention and elimination of Child Labour.The workshop was organized by Save the Children in collaboration with Labour Department J&K and supported by UNICEF.In his inaugural speech, Dr Abdul Rashid laid emphasis on the need for the development of State Action Plan for prevention and elimination of child labour. He said all should work in the best interest of the children and should be our focus while dealing with children. He highlighted the need of coordination among various departments to eliminate the child labour.Participants from various departments including Labour, Social Welfare and Police department besides NGOs and civil society attended the workshop and discussed in detail about the issues in implementation of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and shared recommendations for checking child labour in the state.During the two-day workshop, various sessions will be conducted on overview of Child Labour in the state, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act along with amendments and measures for its effective enforcement.
Earlier, Assistant Manager, Save the Children Neha Gandotra, welcomed all the participants and emphasized on the need of State Action Plan on Child Labour.Asma Dhar, Assistant Manager, Save the Children introduced the Save the children and their work at National and state level. Hilal Bhat, resource person in the workshop presented scenario of the child Labor and the law in the State. He briefed the participants on the procedures, mechanism, initiatives and challenges on ground. Another resource person, Nimisha, presented overview of the draft of State Action Plan on Child labour Prohibition and regulation.Different departments like Labour, Information, Police, ICPS, Social Welfare, Urban development, rural development, education and Health department were involved in the development of the State Action plan.Rajiv Khajuria Founder of National Development Foundation also briefed about existing child protection mechanisms.Deputy Labour Commissioner Ankur Mahajan and other officers of Labour department were also present on the occasion.