Finance
On Friday, the Odisha government inaugurated the ‘Shishu Shram Mukta Gram Panchayat’ (Child Labour-Free Gram Panchayat) campaign, a 44-day statewide awareness effort aiming at ridding Odisha of child labor.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced the campaign’s commencement in a video message, describing child labor as a societal evil that deprives children and adolescents of their fundamental right to an education.
“Child labour is a social evil that deprives our children and adolescents of their fundamental right to education,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the government had taken a resolve to make Odisha free from child labour.
Majhi said a 44-day awareness campaign for child labour-free gram panchayats would be conducted across every gram panchayat in the state.
The campaign aims to create awareness against the practice of child labour and encourage collective efforts to eliminate it.
“Freeing our society from the evil practice of child labour is not merely the responsibility of the administration; it is a collective duty of all of us,” the Chief Minister said.
He further stated that the holistic development of children is a key foundation for achieving the goal of a Samruddha Odisha (Prosperous Odisha).
The Chief Minister appealed to the people to join the campaign and contribute to efforts to build a child labour-free Odisha.
“Let us all work together to help build a child labour-free Odisha, where every child can dream and is empowered to achieve those dreams,” Majhi said.
The most recent dedicated state study, performed in 1997, discovered 2,15,222 child laborers in Odisha.
However, the Odisha State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights reports that no systematic statewide survey has been completed since then.
Source: IANS
