This is an incredible success story of a movement against Child labor in the highly child labor prone district of Nizamabad, Telangana. Sustained even after 2 decades, this is testimony of the axiom that social issues can only be successfully and sustainably addressed if it is made into People’s movement. In 2001, under the leadership of G.Asok Kumar, the then-District-Collector of Nizamabad district in the then state of Andhra Pradesh, the community decided to ensure that all children in the 5-15 age group in the mandal (tehasil) will attend schools and NO Child will be engaged as a labor in any form in the mandal. After a campaign for 90 days, for identifying, tracking and enrolling all out-of-school children into schools, on 2 October 2001, Veilpur was declared a “Child labor free mandal”- a status very zealously guarded by the community till today. All children in the 5-15 age group in the mandal go to school, and NO Child labor exists there even after 20 years now! To cherish the proud achievement of being the first Mandal in the state to be declared Child Labor free and to remind them of their commitment to sustain it, villagers have erected boards in all villages telling there is NO CHILD LABOR in OUR VILLAGE.
Veilpur success story is very well documented, appreciated by ILO, press and media. Veilpur is visited by many experts in the field of education and child labor. It has won universal appreciation, with Dr Abdul Kalam, the then President of India praising it. The success of Veilpur has inspired many neighbouring mandals to follow the suit and has spawned similar efforts in Nizamabad and many other parts of the country. Veilpur model involving total participation of community to sustain the fight against Child Labor is a regular part of all the training programs organized by VV Giri National Labor Institute, Noida under the Ministry of Labor and Employment, Government of India, even after 20 years now.
As part of the Azadi ka Amruth Mahotsav on 8 October 2021, VVGNLI organized a program in Nizamabad, Telangana to celebrate 20 years of successful intervention” to eliminate child labor and declaration of Veilpur Mandal, Nizamabad dist as Child labor free on 2nd Oct, 2001. All children in the 5-15 age group were admitted to the school on that day. No child was out-of-school and the same status is maintained even after 20 years, due to the continuous monitoring and commitment of the community to retain it as a child labor free mandal. This is the best example to testify the axiom that social issues are best addressed and sustained only with community involvement.
Am proud to be associated with it as the Collector of the District in 2001 and the one who initiated and drove the campaign then. This campaign has got national and international recognition due to its sustenance for over 20 years now.
In the function on 8/October/2021 we honored all the then Sarpanchs, Caste elders, Zilla Parishad members and the then MLA Sri Baji Reddy Govardhan (all of whom had participated in the drive then).The well-attended hybrid function, participated by Sri Srinivas Katikithala IAS , Director, LBSNAA, Musoorie, Sri Dharmapuri Arvind, MP from Nizamabad, Sri Baji Reddy Govardhan, MLA Nizamabad Rural, Smt Rani Kumudini, Spl CS, dept of Labor, Govt of Telangana, Dr H Srinivas, DG, VVGiri National Labor Institute; Sri Narayan Reddy Collector Nizamabad, Sri Mahaveer Jain, a domain expert, etc. THE WEEK made an exclusive report on this event.
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