Child labourers rescued from different places in the state, in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, June 12: Bihar State Child Labour Commission termed the Centre’s special schools for child labourers a faulty scheme, which has failed to achieve the desired goal. It also said that the scheme should be scrapped.

Under its national child labour project (NCLP), the Centre has been running schools in the state for children who have been rescued from working in hazardous places. About 80,000 children have been enrolled in 1,410 such schools being run by the Centre under the NCLP against the sanctioned strength of 1,700 schools.

“The NCLP scheme has failed to achieve its desired objective. The reason is that all these schools are being run on paper. Out of 1,410 such schools, about 100 are running in the capital but on paper. So the scheme should be scrapped,” said chairman Ramdeo Prasad and vice-chairperson Anita Sinha yesterday.

“It is very difficult to locate a single school being run in the capital as these schools do not provide their exact address. They just give the name of an area or colony such as Kankerbagh, Rajiv Nagar, Shashtri Nagar and others. It is very difficult to find out any school in such big colonies and that’s why we say that these schools are being run on paper only,” Sinha said.

According to the scheme, the Centre provides funds directly to the district magistrate under whose control these schools are being run, Prasad said, adding that the scheme should be either scrapped or it should be given to the state government for execution.

Prasad said the government should open residential schools on the lines of Navoday Vidyalaya at places where there are child labourers.

Referring to the apex court’s judgment, the chairman said the parents of such children must be given regular employment under various schemes. At least, the parents should be given 365 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, he added.

Asked what steps the commission has taken to wipe out child labour prevailing in houses of leaders, officers or traders, Prasad said: “There is a problem in carrying out raids on the premises of top officers, businessman, politicians but we are working on it.”

The commission is going to launch an awareness programme for a fortnight from June 12, the day observed as World Day against Child Labour.