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Press
Release 14 March 2001
Workshop on " Food insecurity and child work in
rural India " The World Food Programme of the United Nations and the Institute for Human Development are jointly organising a consultative workshop on " Food insecurity and child work in rural India " from 15-17 March 2001 at the India International Centre, New Delhi. The workshop participants include senior government officials, renowned professionals and NGOs. It is for the first time that a workshop on child labour is looking at the dimensions of food insecurity and its influence on child work. Preliminary investigations conducted by WFP reflect commonality in the geographical distribution of child work and food insecurity. The study also shows a positive and significant correlation between child work and wasting and stunting among children below 5 years and chronic energy deficiency among adults. This is reflective of the vicious cycle of child work, food insecurity, malnutrition, low productivity and poverty. This workshop will have a special technical session to further understand the links between food insecurity and child labour. Going beyond issues of children in the hazardous industry, the workshop will focus on all children who are denied of basic social, economic, education and food requirements, which are so important for their full and harmonious growth and development. The gender dimensions will merit special attention in the workshop since the impact of child work on the girl child has ramifications beyond what is normally understood and has an intergenerational impact. Child labour estimates in the country wary widely and ranges from 11.28 million to 100 million, depending on how they are defined. The workshop will therefore discuss the dimensions and typology of child work and the regional variations. Since food assistance can play an important role in addressing food insecurity, the workshop will dwell on the various options for enhancing household food security. The outcome of the consultative workshop will be a set of guidelines for optimising the current food assistance programmes which particularly target school aged children living in food insecure areas in order to reduce the incidence of child labour. The World Food Programme supports the Government of India in enhancing household food security through a number of food assistance programmes in the backward districts of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala.
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