Why is the government still reluctant to label all out-of-school children as child labourers?
I don’t see any reason to get into the semantics of the issue. The commitment of the government is to get all children under the fold of education and Article 21 A provides for free and compulsory education for children up to 14 years. Now we look at what is doable immediately. We have the SSA campaign, but we recognise that certain children, for whatever reasons, have difficulty in getting covered under the scheme. So even within the SSA, we need alternative schools. The target is to include all such children, who are not either in the SSA or in mainstream schools. That is why there has to be a greater convergence with the Department of Education; but then, it has to be with other Departments such as Welfare and Women and Child Development as well. It has to be a concerted effort. The families also have to be supported with supplementary income or employment, so that they are not compelled to send their children to work. You have often stated that child labour is mainly a socio-econom
