| In the Tenth Plan, child labour elimination efforts would be linked with the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy (Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD)). The intention is to ensure that all children in the age group of 5-8 years get directly linked to the formal school education system through a close, coordinated attempt with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Poverty, apart from illiteracy, being the main cause of child labour, it is necessary to raise the economic standard of the parents of working children by exploiting the synergy of benefits of various schemes under implementation at the district level. A substantial number of parents of working children could be covered under the Department of Rural Development’s self-employment and poverty alleviation schemes. In the context of the above objectives concerted, focused and rigorous efforts at converging important activities at the Central Government, State Government and the District level would be needed to be put in place. Similarly, convergence with ongoing schemes of other Departments such as Health, Women and Child Development, Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, Labour, etc., could be critical for the ultimate attainment of the objective of elimination of child labour in a time-bound manner. |