LUCKNOW: The UP government has provided education and vocational training to 26,933 child labourers in the past 4.5 years, as part of its programme to free them from the illegal practice.
A government spokesperson said that under the Naya Savera Yojana, implemented by the labour department in collaboration with Unicef, the government has worked with child labourers in villages across 20 districts. These include Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Bareilly, Badaun, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Barabanki, Gonda, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Ballia, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur.
“To curb the practice of child labour, the government has been engaged in improving living standards of children working as labourers and providing support to their families. Most of these children have been employed in hotels, factories, shops and homes.
These children are not only helping their families but also are being connected to mainstream society by receiving education,” the spokesperson said.
He added that the government has identified 39,576 children in 1,197 gram panchayats. Other than this, as many as 7,561 families have also been given the benefit of social security schemes.
