girls form 80 per cent of school dropouts

Vijayawada: Girls outnumber boys in school dropout cases. Eighty per cent of the school dropouts in the State comprise of girls in rural areas. A majority of the girls are not continuing their education after primary level.  The main reason for this is they have to travel more than 3 km to attend high school classes. Parents are afraid of sending their girls to the high schools in distant places for fear of their safety. 

Fear of safety an obstacle for their high school studies  Media urged to keep victim’s identity a secret in cases of child trafficking

These are a few observations made by a workshop on the role media in preventing child trafficking and child labour by Academy of Gandhian Studies here on Sunday. Speaking at the workshop, Plan India project manager Madhu Sagili said that Andhra  Pradesh stands in seventh place in child labour. He said girls top the lists of school dropouts in rural areas. He stressed the need for support from media to eradicate the menace of child labour.

Delivering keynote address, Indian Information Service director MVS Prasad said that media plays a great role in preventing child labour and child trafficking. Media should not sensationalise the child trafficking cases and help to prevent child trafficking, he said. he workshop passed a resolution appealing to the media to maintain secrecy by not identifying victims in the reports related to trafficking of girl child. 

The workshop also urged the reporters not to sensationalise the cases of girl trafficking and ensure the reports should not have an adverse impact on the future of the victims. The reports should be positive and help to rescue the girl child. The speakers opined that the government should take initiative for education of children to prevent child labour and child trafficking. Several media persons expressed their views and explained the support being rendered by media to prevent child labour and child trafficking. AGS field manager D Ashok Kumar and others were present.

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