Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-12-13

The National Policy on Elimination of Child Labour from Sri Lanka

- The Government of Sri Lanka made a commitment to eliminate child labour from Sri Lanka at the Global Child Labour Conference, held in the Hague city of the Netherlands, in the year 2010. According to the Child Activity Survey conducted in the year 2015/2016, the number of Child Labour in Sri Lanka has been reduced by about 50% in comparison to the year 2008/2009. As such, Sri Lanka has the potential to achieve zero tolerance in the elimination of child labour. Further, implementing a National Child Labour Policy is one of the initiatives in the Action Plan in relation to regaining the European Union's Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) to the country. Therefore, the proposal made by Hon. W.D.J. Seneviratne, the Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations, to recognize the national policy for the total elimination of child labour from Sri Lanka and to implement same, was approved by the Cabinet.