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| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
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Present Act to be amended : Deterrent punishment for child labour by Don Asoka Wijewardena In a bid to stop under-aged (below 14), children being employed and to eliminate child labour,an amendment to the Employment of Women, Youth and Children Act' will be introduced in Parliament on November 7 by the Minister of Employment and Labour, Mahinda Samarasingha. Under the amended Act, the existing penalties will be enhanced with punitive punishments. In an interview with the "Sunday Observer", Minister Samarasingha said that as child labour had become a social evil, legislation was imperative to eradicate it since the provisions in the present Act did not warrant deterrent punishment on unscrupulous employers. "The existing Act was enacted in 1956 and it neither gave protection to children nor punished errant employers.The new amendment was gazetted on October 8 and it will protect child labour and punish employers who violate it," the Minister said. The new amendment includes: 1. A fine of Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 1,000, 2. Twelve months imprisonment instead of six months and 3. Welfare programmes for affected children Welfare programmes will depend on a magistrate's order and the new amendment will empower a magistrate to order any individual or organisation hiring children illegally to pay an amount as deemed fit to the child as compensation for mental and physical suffering he or she had undergone in the service of such individual or organisation and for loss of education. The new amendment will also encourage the general public to take care/ notice of under-aged children being employed by individuals and organisations and enable them to notify any such acts immediately to the Child Protection Authority, Probation Department, any Labour Office in any part of the country, or the Women's and Children's Affairs section of the Ministry of Labour. According to the Ministry of Labour,the new amendment will also seek the co-operation and co-ordination of the public,non-governmental organisations and others to totally eradicate child labour. The Ministry of Labour ensures that the information leading to child labour will be treated as strictly confidential. |
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