Mangaluru : An eight-member committee headed by Renni D’Souza, State convener of Campaign Against Child Labour, has been set up to work out the criteria and modalities to be followed for declaring Dakshina Kannada a child labour-free district.

At a meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer P.I. Srividya on Tuesday, Mr. D’Souza expressed the need of criteria and modalities that needed to be followed for the purpose.

Mr. Ibrahim directed Assistant Labour Commissioner Mr. Nagesh to form a committee. Apart from Mr. D’Souza, the committee will have Hilda Rayappan from Prajnya Counselling Centre, Nirmala, Health Officer, Mangaluru City Corporation and two labour officers. The committee has been asked to submit a report.

The meeting was held in light of a recent observation by Minister of State for Labour P. T. Parameshwar Naik at a function that Dakshina Kannada district was child labour-free. It was contested by CACL, which said that there was no official declaration of any district as child labour- free.

Assistant Labour Commissioner A.C. Nagesh said that there had been 173 cases of child labour in the last 13 years. Of these, the highest of eight cases were registered in 2014-15, followed by seven in 2011, three in 2012 and five in 2013. No cases of child labour have been registered this year. Ms. Rayappan said the talk on declaring the district child labour-free had been on for many years but no action had been taken. “There seems to be fear of such declaration as child labour is still prevalent.” Ms. Rayappan, however, said she has certainly seen a significant drop in the number of child labour cases.

Child Welfare Committee Chairman Nikesh Shetty spoke about the delay in getting medical reports of children rescued from hazardous and non-hazardous work places. Activist Suresh Shetty expressed the need of education for children who are rescued.