The labour and employment ministry’s programme to rescue and rehabilitate child labourers was merged with an education ministry scheme in April 2021 without consulting state governments who are key stakeholders, a parliamentary panel has found.

Nor have the states been informed that the merger increases their funds burden, suggests a submission to the parliamentary standing committee on labour from the education ministry, which appears to have reservations about the way the merger was done.

The merger has therefore created confusion on the ground, leading to poor implementation of the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), which identifies, rescues and provides schooling to child labourers, says the House panel’s report, titled “National Policy on Child Labour: An Assessment”.

Figures in the report bear this out, showing that the spending on the scheme in 2021-22 and 2022-23 — the post-merger years — have been less than a fifth of the expenditure in 2017-18, for instance, and less than half of that in Covid-hit 2020-21. (See chart)

The parliamentary committee has flagged a lack of coordination between the labour and education ministries that it says has hurt the merged scheme.

India is home to about 1.01 crore working children aged 5 to 14 years, according to the 2011 population census. It’s illegal for children under 14 to work.

Under the NCLP, a District Project Society in each district conducts surveys to identify working children aged below 14. Rescued child labourers aged 5 to 8 are sent to school under the education ministry’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which promises school education for all. Those aged 9 to 14 have the option of going to school or to Special Training Centres that provide non-formal education and vocational training, along with midday meals, a monthly stipend of Rs 400, and healthcare.

The NCLP is funded entirely by the Centre whereas the states provide 40 per cent of the funds for the SSA except for the northeastern and hilly states, who have to shoulder only 10 per cent of the expenses.

“In other words, financial burden on the part of the states is likely to increase (because of the merger), and they should have been consulted before taking this (merger) decision,” the House panel report says, quoting the education ministry.

The labour ministry told the panel that the SSA runs Special Training Centres for the children of migrant workers in some districts, and the merger was done to avoid duplication of efforts.

The education ministry said the labour ministry had “informed all the implementing agencies that the schemes have been merged/ subsumed”. “However, in absence of detailed instructions/ procedure, it has created ambiguity at ground level,” the education ministry added.

“State education departments are writing to this department seeking directions with reference to their fund requirement as also utilisation of human resource. Likewise, representations are being received… from different stakeholders about their salary dues and further continuance.”

The labour ministry has said that all the District Project Societies would cease to exist with the merger of the schemes.

The education ministry told the panel that if these employees are sacked, there’s likely to be litigation and complaints to Parliament.