A familiar sight in Devadurga, Karnataka, are transport vehicles loaded with adults and children, being taken to the fields for labour. Children especially, are used as seasonal labourers, losing big chunks of school time, often dropping out because of the resulting learning gaps. Child labour is a complex systemic phenomenon that takes various forms according to the circumstances, and addressing it requires multi-pronged efforts and collaboration among various government departments, NGOs, the Police and the public.
A Step to Eradicate Child Labour— a monumental nationwide campaign to combat child labour, was launched by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The pan-India rescue and rehabilitation campaign 2.0, which began on 10 January and ends on 31 March 2025, aims to rescue children working in hazardous environments and rehabilitate them. As the campaign is perfectly aligned with the Don Bosco work for the young at risk (YaR), and BREADS’ Don Bosco partners are active collaborators with the NCPCR and government departments in the various districts, they rescued 91 children so far: Devadurga (42), Mysuru (21), Kalaburagi (20), and Yadagiri (10). The children were rescued from various situations of child rights violations: child labour (rural and urban), beggary, being out of school and living on the street without family support.
In Devadurga, the Don Bosco team is vigilant during every harvest season to track and rescue child labourers every year. In this instance too, they played an integral role in 16 raids on transport vehicles, rescuing 42 child labourers, of whom, 30 boys were re-enrolled to mainstream schools, while 12 girls are being counselled through regular house visits. Yadagiri district, with high levels of poverty, has been struggling with the issue of child labour across its six taluks. The anti-child labour campaign in Yadagiri demonstrates the complex collaboration required for successful intervention. It was conducted according to a taluk-level plan, chaired by the Tehsildar, involving all the appropriate government departments, district legal services, police and local NGOs including the Don Bosco Centre for Social Action. It was decided to take legal action against employers of children, through 15 surprise raids every month, with strict penalties for offenders. Focus was on shops, garages, andhotels where child labour is usually prevalent.
Through the collaborative efforts of Don Bosco, eight children were successfully rescued and according to the Juvenile Justice Act rules, handed over to the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for rehabilitation. Their parents appeared before the CWC and it was found that despite the availability of free primary education, the rescued children had discontinued their studies due to poverty. The shopkeepers, who employed the children, were summoned by the Labour Department, which according to the Child and Adolescen Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, imposed penalties on them.
This year alone, INR 200,000 was collected from offending shop owners. Don Bosco Centre for Social Action as a committed NGO, put in tremendous efforts to ensure children were brought to the CWC. The rescued children were counselled and motivated to return to school. Their cases were followed up by the Child Protection Project Officer and Don Bosco to ensure that the children were admitted in schools and their education continued uninterrupted. These interventions reinforce the collective responsibility of both government and non-government agencies and individuals to eradicate child labour, and the importance of continuous collaboration and social awareness campaigns.
