The Labour Directorate of Odisha in collaboration with Unicef  Odisha and Aid-et-Action organised a meeting to kick-start a movement to eliminate child labour in Odisha.

The event was chaired by Labour Commissioner, Odisha, Dr N Thirumala Naik, Chief of field office, Unicef Dr Monika Nielsen, ChildProtection Specialist Neha Naidu, Communication and Advocacy Specialist Radhika Srivastava and Director Migration Education, Aid-et-Action Umi Daniel. District Labour Officers of Baleswar, Ganjam, Khurdha, Cuttack and Rourkela along with representatives from CREDAI, brick kiln owners and stakeholders shared their experience and opinion to eradicate child labourers in the State. Srivastava introduced the concept and objective of the initiative.

Setting the tone, Naidu said, “The state of adolescence is the time children develop and aspire and if they start working at this time, it hinders their scope for development and maximise their potential. Eachone of us needs to come forward and prevent child labour.”

Dr Naik said, “We have to work together to help communities understand the value of education and send their children to school and not to

work.”

Highlighting how Covid 19 pushed more children into labour, Nielsensaid, “With support from the Government and key departments, civilsociety organisations, the private sector and Unicef can work togetherto accelerate actions to eliminate child labour in Odisha.”

Daniel said, “We need to work more in tandem with industry partners to ensure no child works with or without their parents in labour.”

Brick kiln owners present at the meeting highlighted how they were aware of the laws against child labour and they made every effort to send back children who may be accompanying their parents.

A model Code of Conduct was discussed with the brick kiln owners which would renew and strengthen their commitment of zero tolerance of child labour both within their business premises as well as those who were part of theindustry supply chain.