pronged and mainly consists of: a legislative action plan; project based action in areas of high
      concentration of child labour; and focus on general development programmes for the benefit of
      the families of such labour.
      Legislative Action Plan
           Under the Legislative Action Plan, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, was
      enacted in 1986. As per the provisions of the Act, the employment of children below the age of
      14 years was prohibited in 18 occupations and 65 processes. Then the Government followed it up
      with the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, which came into force
      from 2016. The Amendment inter-alia covers the complete prohibition on employment or work
      of children below 14 years of age in all occupations and processes; linking the age of the
      prohibition of employment with the age for free and compulsory education under Right to
      Education Act, 2009; prohibition on employment of adolescents (14 to 18 years of age) in
      hazardous occupations or processes and making stricter punishment for the employers
      contravening the provisions of the Act; and project based action plan in the areas of high
      concentration of child labour. In pursuance of National Child Labour Policy, the National Child
      Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme was started in 1988 to rehabilitate children rescued from child
      labour. It is an ongoing Central Sector Scheme and at present sanctioned in 270 districts in the
      country. Under the Scheme, working children are identified through child labour survey,
      withdrawn from work and put into the special training centres so as to provide them with an
      environment to subsequently join mainstream education system. In these special training centres,
      besides formal education, the children are provided stipend, supplementary nutrition, vocational
      training and regular health checkups.
           As poverty is the primary cause of such a social evil, the educational rehabilitation of such
      children is further complemented by the economic rehabilitation of the families through the
      convergence approach so that the children and their families are covered under the benefits of the
      schemes of various ministries/departments.
      Re-alignment of NCLP Scheme with RTE Act
           With the enactment of Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, there was a need for
      realignment of the NCLP Scheme with the provisions of RTE Act, 2009. The NCLP Schools
      could now serve as special training centres for unenrolled and out of school children in
      accordance with the provisions of Section 4 of the RTE Act and Rule 5 of the Right of Children
      for free and compulsory education (RTE) Rules, 2010. The name of “the Child Labour
      (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986” mentioned at Sl. No. 13 of the list of Central Act
      provided in Chapter 1 has been replaced with “the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition &
      Regulation) Act, 1986” from 2016.
      Bonded Labour
      Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour
           With a view to supplementing the efforts of the state governments; a Centrally Sponsored
      Plan Scheme for rehabilitation of bonded labour was launched in 1978. Under the Scheme, state
      governments are provided Central assistance on matching grants (50:50) basis for the
      rehabilitation of bonded labour. The said Plan Scheme was drastically modified in 2000 to
      provide for 100 per cent assistance for conducting district wise surveys for identification of