project fully and also pursue the wider project which it has devised, namely the Chiid Labour
Abolition Programme (CLAP),aimed at dealing comprehensively with child l a b u r in hazardous
industries in that State.
PREVENllNG EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN BY GOVERNMENT SERVANTS:
(B)
AMENDEMENT OF SERVICE RULES
Following reports of employment of children below the age of 34 years by Government
servants and distressing information about the mistreatment of such children, the Commission
recommended that this practice should be prohibited through the addition d an appropriate
Conduct Rule expressly for this purpose. The amendment suggested to Government of India
was as follows:
7.4
Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 shall be mended by adding the
following as Rule 22-A:
"22-A: {i)
No Government Servant shall employ to work any child below the
age of 14 years;
(ii) breach af sub-rule (i)shall be misconduct attracting a major
penalty".
The Commiseion thereafter requested the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances
and Pensions, Government of lnda in February 1997 and the Chief Ministers of all the States
in March 1997, to enact amendments in the Service Rules of the Cmtral Government and
State Government employees raspectively.The State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Assarn,
Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal accepted
the recommendation of the Commission and issued notifications. The State Governments of
Gujarat, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Mizoram informed the Commission that, as
and when the required amendment would be made by the Central Government, the same
would become applicable to them. The remaining States indicated that they were considering
adopting the recommendation of the Commission. The Commission takes this opportunity to
call upon them to adopt the recommendation without further delay.
7.5
7.6
As the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions expressed certain
reservations in regard to the recommendation of the Commission, the matter was pursued
with lt in January and February 1999. The Ministry of Personnel thereafter agreed in a discussion
to review its earlier stand in the matter. The Commission trusts that its recommendation wil\
be acmpted and that the necessary amendments in the CCS (Conduct) Rules will soon be
made.