Even after two years of implementing the Right to Education Act, the national commission for protection of child rights (NCPCR) is still pushing for amendment in the child labour laws. The commission, responsible for monitoring the act, asks for total abolition of child labour across all sectors, says Shantha Sinha, chairperson NCPCR. Sinha adds that it is important to abolish child labour for successful implementation of the RTE and that the commission is continuously writing to the government for this.

Sinha was speaking at the launch of UNICEF’s report on The State of the World’s Children 2012- Children in the urban world

She said to keep a track of every out-of-school child, local solutions have to be found out with the help of people. “RTE Act says that schools must have School Management Committees (SMC) and many states have notified it. In many states, local bodies and gram panchayats are working as SMCs to track such school children. There has to be local solutions like these. No centralised scheme can solve this problem. People must participate to ensure that every child goes to school,” Shanta Sinha added.