Child labourers in Assam have something to cheer about. The state government has prepared a Child Labour Literacy Programme for child labourers in the age group of 14 to 17 years.
This programme will be implemented from January 2011 in 35 centres, preferably local government schools in the urban areas, and is expected to help over 1000 child labourers employed in restaurants, garages and factories.
An instructor will be appointed at each centre to teach 30 teenagers at the time convenient to the child labourers without disturbing their work timings.
The program is proposed to be launched in 10 districts: Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Kamrup (metro), Cachar, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Nagaon, Karimganj and Nalbari.
The programme was conceived after a state wide survey on the literacy status of child labourers.
The state government has already selected one instructor per centre and dispatched the learning materials to the districts. Apart from basic reading and writing, course would also include simple arithmetic and basic functional knowledge needed to carry out day-to-day activities.
The learners will be an experience certificate after the completion of the course.
A five-member supervisory centre-level committee, comprising of village Panchayat ward member, teacher of a nearby government school, instructor of the centre and known persons of the area, would be formed for the efficient execution of the plan.