Andhra Pradesh State Based Project for the Elimination of Child Labour -Phase II

Background

An overwhelming percentage of out-of-school children in India are child labourers. Andhra Pradesh has the largest number of child labour after Uttar Pradesh as per the 2001 Census. A majority of the working children are girls. Further, nearly 90 percent of child labour is in rural areas. It is therefore essential to evolve state based initiatives and approaches for the elimination of child labour based on the socio-economic and cultural context of Andhra Pradesh and working through the governance of Andhra Pradesh.

Objectives

• Develop and implement a strategy for creating community level awareness on child labour;
• Sensitize key government agencies and civil society partners, including trade unions and employers' associations, and build their capacity;
• Support additional income opportunities to families of child labourers;
• Develop and pilot a model participatory, monitoring, and evaluation system;
• Develop and implement a programme for the girl child labourer (10 - 15 years);
• Support the ongoing Integrated Child Labour Programme of the Andhra Pradesh Government;
• Mobilizing trade unions to work against child labour;
• Mobilizing employers' organizations to work against child labour;
• Mobilizing and networking Civil Society Organizations to work against child labour;
• Complete the Integrated Area Specific Approach against Hazardous and Exploitative;
• Forms of Child Labour in the Slate Industry in Markapur.

Strategy

In Phase I, the project adopted specific strategies at the micro, meso and macro level. During Phase II of the project, the ILO has extended its work of Phase I with its partners. Two broad interventions in Phase II are:

• The first will implement the micro level grass-roots model developed and tested in about 150 villages in Phase I across the two districts of Kurnool and Mahabubnagar;
• The second intervention seeks to create an enabling environment by addressing the complex problems and issues of urban child labour; replicating on an up-scaled basis, the model developed in Phase I of providing low-cost skills development to older children; and continuing work with civil society organizations to ensure that all sections of society are conscious of and response to the issue of child labour in their own capacities.