Chandigarh:
Punjab Labour Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani said on Sunday that the state government is launching new schemes to rehabilitate 1,959 child labourers who it rescued in the last one year.
He said that 1,802 employers were booked for their involvement in child labour in Punjab's 22 districts. He added that 1,959 child labourers were rescued out of which 1,284 were doing dangerous jobs.
Mr Jayani said that the state government was committed to provide jobs in government or semi-government sector to one person of the family of the rescued child labourer.
"152 culprit employers have deposited the requisite fine (Rs 20,000) in the Child Labour Rehabilitation Fund, whereas 895 are still to deposit this money. A total amount of 0.80 lakh has been deposited for 616 rescued child labourers. The concerned district collectors would collect the remaining fine from remaining 895 defaulter employers," he said.
He said that special schools were being run in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar districts for the rescued child labourers to impart them basic and vocational education. "About 7,484 children have completed their education in these schools and 4,271 students are still studying there," he added.