New Delhi, July 22 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's wife, Gursharan Kaur, has said the alarming figures of child labour is a matter of shame for the country.
Addressing the National Summit - India Against Child Labour, organised by a consortium of non-government organizations (NGOs) here on Saturday, Kaur observed that poverty is the root cause for increase in child labour.
"I believe there are 40 million children who work for their living. So what else could be more shameful for us? Definitely our heads bow down in shame but the root of this problem is poverty," she said.
According to Plan India, an NGO working for the rights of child labourers, the informal labour force statistics shows that the problem seems to be more severe than reflected.
Child labour is estimated to be as large as 60 million in India, since many children are 'hidden workers' working in homes or engaged in economic activities that are not in public view such as weaving units located in narrow lanes of ghettos.
Gursharan Kaur said that the people, who illegally hire children, should be exposed.
"We will have to make people aware. It should be our duty to expose those who, in order to have cheap labour hire children. We must expose them and rescue children from such humiliation," she added.
Child labour is also common and thriving in very sectors such as glass bangle manufacturing, cleaning of oil tankers, poultry farms, motor workshops, brick kilns and small hotels-places where the stark lack of safety norms places the workers in a very dangerous spot. (ANI)
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