Stop Labour Child!!!

Profound solidarity !!!

April 18,2018:A number of underaged children are employed in the in different  sectors  in Jammu and  Kashmir, especially in Pahalgam,Gulmarg ,Sonamarg and other spots    as pony walas and in hotels, local restaurants,shops  and vehicles driver conductor. These are minors who instead need to be at school and are compelled to drop out of education, mostly due to poverty and lack of accessibility of and acceptability in local schools. We brought up the matter in the time to time and now again we requested industry players to not resort to child labour as a source of cheap labour but to no avail. Both the tourism and Labour departments as well as ministries of education and child welfare need to take immediate cognisance of the problem, have these kids rescued and rehabilitated and sent to schools as well simultaneously punishing the employers and making it difficult for them to employ children as workers, which is legally a punishable crime as per the J&K Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, which "provides for regulation of employment of children in non-hazardous process or occupation .The act also provides for rehabilitation of child workers and providing support to the family on account of loss of income."

Mushtaq Pahalgami,
Himalayan Welfare Organization-HWO