DELHI DECLARATION

PREAMBLE

1.0 We, the Labour Ministers of Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries, have gathered in this Fifth Conference hosted by the Government of India at New Delhi from the 19th to the 23rd of January, 1995 at a very momentous juncture when the United Nations is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the International Labor Organization its 75th.

THE WORLD ECONOMIC SCENARIO AND DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Elimination of Child Labour

5.8 We are aware and hold that the practice of exploitative child labour wherever it is practised is a moral outrage and an affront to human dignity. It has serious adverse implication for the human capital development amongst the rising generations. Therefore, we should commit ourselves to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We too are pro-actively committed to eliminate this practice in terms of the resolution of the International Labour conference, 1979, particularly keeping in view the ground reality that it is poverty and distress combined with inadequate access to good quality relevant education that compel parents to send their children for work; and we resolve to fulfill this commitment in a time-bound manner, giving immediate priority for total and de facto elimination of child labour in hazardous employments; and, for the purpose, we should implement a package of legislative and developmental measures with adequate allocation of resources and fully involving the social partners, apart from learning from country-experiences in tackling this problem.