A 44-day nationwide awareness campaign called “Shishu Shram Mukta Gram Panchayat” (Child Labour-Free Gram Panchayat) was started by the Odisha government with the goal of eradicating the threat of child labor in the state. In a video message announcing the campaign’s beginning, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi described child labor as a societal evil that denies children and adolescents their basic right to an education.
The Chief Minister declared that the government has made a commitment to end child labor in Odisha on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Every gram panchayat in the state will participate in a 44-day awareness drive for child labor-free gram panchayats, according to Majhi. The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the practice of child labor and promote group initiatives to end it.
He added that attaining the objective of a Samruddha Odisha (Prosperous Odisha) depends heavily on the holistic development of children. The Chief Minister urged everyone to participate in the campaign and help create an Odisha free of child labor. There were 2,15,222 child laborers in Odisha according to the most recent state survey, which was carried out in 1997. But since then, no comprehensive statewide survey has been carried out, according to the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
