Minister of Child and Women Affairs Saroja Savitri Paulraj said that the government has taken steps to amend the rules and regulations related to child labor. Accordingly, she stated that steps will be taken to increase the fine against employing children from the previous Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 100,000.
She said this while initiating the second reading debate on the ‘Employment of Women, Youth and Children (Amendment) Bill’ in Parliament on the 20th.
Expressing further views, the Minister stated that employing children under the age of one year is completely prohibited, and the law also prohibits the employment of children between the ages of 16 and 18 in hazardous jobs.
She also says that since Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government's aim is not to minimize child labor and labor exploitation in Sri Lanka, but to make it a state where it has been completely eliminated.