Kerala almost free of child labour, claims minister

Thiruvananthapuram: State Labour Minister Shibu Baby John Tuesday said Kerala is almost free of child labour and that his ministry will launch an awareness campaign to educate people about the ills of child labour. “Through a massive awareness campaign, we want to ensure that no one will think of employing children. We will run the campaign using posters, a helpline and other communication methods to highlight that child labour is wrong,” John said. [caption id=“attachment_801965” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A child labourer works in a brick kiln in India. AFP.[/caption] Listing other achievements of his ministry, John said: “A new institute has been set up in collaboration with institutes in England and Singapore to provide skill upgradation to people.” He said one of the biggest achievements of his ministry was that it streamlined the wage structures of nurses in the state. “This was done after marathon 21 rounds of discussions with the nursing community and various hospitals. We will also launch a finishing school for nurses to train them,” he added. John said another major challenge for his ministry is to ensure that basic welfare measures are provided to the 2.5 million migrant labour work force in the state. IANS