West Bengal forms core committee on child labour

The West Bengal government has constituted a "core committee" to chalk out a policy to eradicate child labour from the state, a senior official said on Monday. The Committee on Rights of the Child along with representatives of the state government and other NGOs have set up the core committee, he said.

The first meeting of the panel has already taken place last week, said Prosun Bhowmik, member of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights. "Kalimpong is reportedly child labour-free but an official announcement is yet to be made. There are places in North and South 24 Parganas where there is almost no child labour," Bhowmik said.

"We want to make the entire state free of this menace and make it a model for the entire country," he added.