In Telangana, more adolescents in the age group of 15-18 are engaged in child labour compared to children below 14 years, according to the Telangana Child Labour Survey report 2019, phase 1 and 2. The survey was conducted in 143 out of the total 314 Mandals in 20 districts of Telangana and over 15,000 children were surveyed
The survey also found minors from the Other Backward Class (OBC) were engaged in child labour compared to minors from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes individually. According to the report, 79.3% of children were found in child labour situations in the age group of 15-18 years, and 20% of children were found in labour situations between the age group of 9-15 years. Children below 8 years were less than 1% in child labour situations.
The report revealed that children from the OBC community engaged in child labour were at 47% whereas children from SC stood at 32%, ST at 19%, and Others at 2%.
The report also said that minor girls below the age of 14 years were employed to do child labour compared than boys by 8%, while boys were more by 4% compared to girls in the adolescents' category.
This analysis was derived from the sample survey carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies in the 43 Mandals of Mancherial, Rajanna Sircilla, Pedapally, Vikarabad, Sangareddy, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Mahabubabad, Kamareddy, Jogulamba Gadwal, Jagtial, Janagaon, Jayashankar Bhupalapally, Komarambheem Asifabad, Medchal, Malkajgiri, Nagarkurnool, Suryapet, Wanaparthy, Yadadri, Siddipet and Warangal (rural) districts of Telangana.
The Child Labour Department said that though they were supposed to conduct a comprehensive report, owing to insufficient funds they did a sample survey. They further said that the Phase-3 of the survey in the remaining districts would commence from August 2019.