#1Apr 18th, 2006
In a move to eliminate child labour, 80,000 working children will be integrated with mainstream education by 2007 under an Indo-US project.
The three-year-long INDUS project, launched in February, 2004, as a follow-up of a joint statement on 'Enhanced Indo-US Cooperation on Eliminating Child Labour', is aimed to ensure elimination of child labour from hazardous occupations, a release said in New Delhi on Monday.
The US Department of Labour is providing $20 million, which will be matched with an equal amount from India, for the project being implemented in 21 districts in NCT of Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the National Child Labour Projects launched by the Ministry of Labour in August 1994, has been extended to 250 child labour endemic districts as well as revised during the Tenth Plan.
The effort is to achieve complete elimination of child labour from identified hazardous occupations by the end of the Tenth Plan.
Under the revised scheme, while special schools running under NCLPs will mainstream working children in the age group of 9 to 14 years to the formal education system, working children in the age group of 5 to 8 years will be mainstreamed directly through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
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