Child labour not only affects a child’s health, it impacts his/her ability to receive schooling and perform academically. When children are forced by their families to work, they no longer have the time to attend school.Stating that child abuse is a major cause of concern, which creates barrier for free growth of children, former Labour Commissioner Ashwini Das stressed on coordination and convergence between different departments and key stakeholders to curb it.
Hundreds of students from different colleges participated in the walk from Ram Mandir to Lower PMG and signature campaign and human chain at Station Square. Meanwhile, with incidents of child abuse assuming alarming proportion in the State, World Vision India, a humanitarian organisation working for child protection, has launched its national campaign in Odisha with an aim to end sexual abuse and exploitation of children by 2021.
Odisha ranked fourth in list of worst rate of child sexual abuse in the country which stands second in world. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 109 cases were registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in the State in 2014. Similarly, of 10,854 cases of child rapes in the country during 2015, about 1,052 cases were registered in Odisha, which ranked third.
