China Bans Child Labour, it continues in India
Even as India contemplates steps to ban child labour and evolve a national policy on children with emphasis on their development, survival and protection. China's State Council promulgated a regulation and has banned the employment of child Labour.

The regulation will be effective on December 1 and its predecessor issued on April 15, 1991, will be automatically annulled. According to the regulation, no government departments, institutions, private enterprises or other businesses are allowed to employ minors under 16 years old. Job recommendations for them are banned in all job agencies. Meanwhile, people less than 16 years old are not permitted to start up a business or become self-employed.
The regulation says that employers must check the identity cards of all job applicants. Parents and children's legitimate guardians are responsible for protecting their minors from being illegally employed. Government departments such as the Labour and social security departments, the police and administrations for industry and commerce are authorized to supervise and stop any use of child Labour. Violations by business people or government officials will lead to punishment including fines, withdrawal of business licenses and criminal charges.

Meanwhile the Indian Labour Ministry is designing a master plan for imposing a ban on child labour and rehabilitation and training of slum children, Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma said inaugurating the World Children Summit here. The Ministry has identified emancipation of slum children and saving them from the clutches of child labour as one of priority areas, the minister said.
Recently ten children working as bonded labourers were freed from a carpet manufacturing unit by district labour officials.

They acted on a tip-off, a team of labour officers raided the carpet unit in Paklor village (Bihar) yesterday and rescued the children, aged between eight and 14 from the clutches of one Panchu Yadav. Panchu Yadav was arrested, while his brother Shivadhar Yadav managed to escape.
The labourers, hailing from Jharkhand, have been sent to a children home at Koraon after obtaining a certificate about their release from the Handia Sub Divisional Magistrate, they said adding they would be sent home within a couple of days after a medical check up. Cases have been registered against the Yadav brothers under various sections of Child Labour and Bonded Labour Abolition Acts.

But this is a rare case of government action in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, for instance child labour in Fireworks Units Continues.

On the global front, launching a new study on child soldiers, entitled "Adult Wars, Child Soldiers: Voices of Children Involved in Armed Conflict in the East Asia and Pacific Region", UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy said that the use of young people by government and non-State armies should be recognized as "an illegal and morally reprehensible practice that has no place in civilized societies."

According to a recent report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 246 million children between the ages of five and 14 worldwide are involved in child labour. Some 160 million children under the age of five are still malnourished, 110 million will never have the opportunity to attend school, and more than 600 million live in families earning less than $1 a day.

Kailash Satyarthi gets Wallenberg Award

Kailash Satyarthi, a well- known child labour activist has been conferred the 12th Annual Wallenberg Lecturer Award. Almost 600 participants, including intellectuals, academics and other personalities took part in the function. Many were deeply moved by Satyarthi's lecture and a few were in tears. Satyarthi is the first Indian recipient of the award.