Amendment to child labour ACT

My letter published in The Hindu

Barkha Deva has raised relevant questions regarding the benefits of the proposed amendment bills on certain existing Acts in her article, “Big questions on our generation.”published in the Hindu two weeks  back  I remember very well , an incident when I was in 3^rd or 4^th standard when Rajaji was ruling Chennai  . All of us had to be present only for the morning classes and were sent  home in the afternoon to enable us to learn  traditional skills. That is what the teachers told us . I remember about angry discussions at home and else where criticising  severely this move as a step to keep marginalised sections in that category forever and soon this scheme was scrapped much to our disappointment . I am surprised that  after several decades, this regressive policy is resurrected  and  incorporated in the amendment bill  to the “Child Labour Act “ Is there any dying  need for the children of poor families to learn their traditional crafts ? Can’t they use their after school hours for developing sports or other languages or digital skills? Can’t a poor man child aspire to become professionals in various fields? Does India wants to travel back to 18^th century ideologies or want to travel on progressive path along other nations?