Sri Lanka's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a national policy to eliminate child labour in the country.
A proposal made by Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations W. D. J. Seneviratne to adopt and implement the national policy on child labour was approved by the cabinet, Xinhua news agency reported.
The government has said there has been a decrease of 50 percent in use of child labour from 2008-2009 to 2015-2016. It also said the national policy is essential to regain the GSP plus trade concession from the European Union.
Sri Lanka agreed to eliminate child labour at the Global Child Labour Conference in 2010 held at The Hague in the Netherlands.
The National Survey on Child Labour conducted in 1999 estimated just over 900,000 children to be economically active in Sri Lanka.
--IANS
soni/ahm/vt