BERHAMPUR: Some 40,977 child labourers have been identified in Ganjam district and interestingly, most of these belong to Hinjli block that comes under the constituency of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

As per a report by the National Child Labour Project, of the child labourers, 2,038 are employed in hazardous works.

Hinji block tops the list with 7,550 child labourers while Kukudahandi comes at the bottom. However, in terms of children employed in hazardous works, Beguniapada block leads the district with 357, the report says.

It has also been found that 32,939 families of the district allow their children to work as child labourers. Of these families, 23,712 are placed in the below poverty line (BPL) list. Most of the families belong to Kabisuryanagar block.

However, efforts are on to alleviate poverty in these families, so that they won’t will to employ their children as labourers. So far, 10,131 families have been provided loans under several poverty alleviation schemes.

The report also found that highest number of child labourers, 15,636, of the district are in the age group of 12-14 years. In the age group 8-10, there are 7,503 and 5,228 child labourers are below the age eight.

Child labourers from the other backward classes (OBC) category numbering 15,509 stand highest among such labourers in the district. They are followed by the harijan (12,754), general caste (10,889) and tribal (1,682), the report says.

As per the study, of 5,93,879 children, 3,67,800 are going to schools in the district